Two black-and-white photographs depicting scenes of Russian life during the Civil War and taken between 1919 and 1920. Both are stamped in purple ink on verso of mount: Fototeka VAKh / INV. no. __ (Photograph file of the All-Russian Academy of Arts / Inventory no. __). Both also have pencilled annotations on verso of mount: [1]. V dome Otdykha pod Leningradom - otdykhai︠u︡shchie obedai︠u︡t / b. dom Polovt︠s︡ova; [in a different hand:] 1920 (In a rest home near Leningrad - the people staying there are having dinner / the former Polovtsov house; 1920). [2]. K nastuplenii︠u︡ 20/VI / Zhenskai︠a︡ Komanda smerti (Preparing for the offensive of June 20 / The Women's "Death" Brigade [1919 or 1920]. The house of the younger A.A. Polovt︠s︡ov was on Kamennyĭ ostrov, St. Petersburg. In 1910 it was converted from a summer cottage to year-round use by the architect Ivan Fomin. The central hall was hung with tapestries from the series Constantine the Great, woven in the 1620's to designs by Rubens, and presented to Emperor Alexander I by Napoleon. In the photograph two of the panels are visible, "The marriage of Constantine and Fausta," and "The trophy," confirming that this is the house depicted in the photograph. See: Osobni︠a︡k A.A. Polovt︠s︡ova / N.V. Zhiteneva (Sankt-Peterburg : Almaz, 1997), p. 136-139. See also: Catalogue of the exhibition Constantine the Great (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1964), fig. 8, cat. 1 and fig. 54, cat. 21b. The first Soviet rest home was established in May, 1920, at Leningrad. See: Great Soviet encyclopedia (1973), v. 8, p. 531. (The photograph has a 4-cm. scratch at upper center.) Members of the "death" brigades organized under the Provisional Government took an oath to die willingly in defense of Russia. See: Russia, a history and interpretation / Michael T. Florinsky (New York : Macmillan, 1960), p. 1408.
