HELLEU Paul-César (1859-1927). Grand Duchess Cyril... Lot 1

HELLEU Paul-César (1859-1927). Grand Duchess Cyril of Russia. Around 1905-1910. Dry point. Leaf: 71.8 x 52 cm. Colour printing. Good proof on vellum, signed in pencil in the lower right corner of the copper, washed and restored (to mask and fill two central holes). Strong persistent freckles. All margins. (This etching represents the wife of Grand Duke Cyril of Russia, born Victoria-Mélita of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1876-1936), granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England who married Cyril in a second marriage in 1905, after divorcing in 1901 from Ernest-Louis of Hesse and the Rhine. After the exile from Russia, the couple finally settled in Saint-Briac in Brittany. Family tradition has it that our ordeal was shot at by the Germans during the Second World War, due to the hostility of the assailants towards Russia, which necessitated its later restoration).