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PH1731
Photographs: PH1731
Title
Maria Petrovna Lilina as Anna Dmítrievna Karénina
Subject
Artist
Fischer, Karl
Date
1911
Dimensions
height: 13.8cm
width: 8.7cm
width: 8.7cm
Provenance
Presented by Michael Gaunt, September 2023.
Other number
E0146
This postcard depicts Maria Petrovna Lilina in the role of Anna Dmítrievna Karénina in Leo Tolstoy's play 'The Living Corpse'.
Lilina was a founding member of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT), with her husband and actor Konstantin Stanislavski, which was formed in 1898. Stanislavski and co-founder, the writer and drama teacher, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, wanted to break away from the state-run theatres, bring back high standards and professionalism in acting, and strive towards emotional truth and realism in their performances. Leo Tolstoy wrote ‘The Living Corpse’ in 1900 but it was published after his death in 1910. It was staged by MAT on 5 October 1911 and was the second of two plays by Tolstoy that the company produced.
‘The Living Corpse’ follows the story of Fedor Protasov, who fakes his own death to escape his unhappy marriage. His wife, believing he has died marries her lover Victor Miháylovich Karénin. Protasov then meets Masha a gypsy singer and starts a relationship with her. When his true identity comes to light, his wife is taken to court and charged with bigamy. To relieve himself of the guilt he feels for lying to his wife, he shoots himself, becoming no longer a living corpse but a real one.
Anna Dmítrievna Karénina is Victor’s mother, a fifty-year-old “grande dame” who tries to appear younger, and intersperses her remarks with French expressions. The postcard possibly depicts a scene in Act V, when Karénina is knitting on an ivy-covered veranda of a bungalow in the country and states how she hopes that Victor will not forget to bring more wool.
Lilina wears a long-sleeved dress with embroidery detail and a high-neck fan collar. She is shown seated in a wooden chair, her hands are holding wool and she is in the act of knitting a white blanket. She looks up to the right-hand corner.
The postcard was published by A. A. Gorozhankin and the photo was taken by Karl Fischer, a prominent German-born Russian photographer who was the official photographer for Imperial Theatres between 1892-1915.
Lilina was a founding member of the Moscow Art Theatre (MAT), with her husband and actor Konstantin Stanislavski, which was formed in 1898. Stanislavski and co-founder, the writer and drama teacher, Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, wanted to break away from the state-run theatres, bring back high standards and professionalism in acting, and strive towards emotional truth and realism in their performances. Leo Tolstoy wrote ‘The Living Corpse’ in 1900 but it was published after his death in 1910. It was staged by MAT on 5 October 1911 and was the second of two plays by Tolstoy that the company produced.
‘The Living Corpse’ follows the story of Fedor Protasov, who fakes his own death to escape his unhappy marriage. His wife, believing he has died marries her lover Victor Miháylovich Karénin. Protasov then meets Masha a gypsy singer and starts a relationship with her. When his true identity comes to light, his wife is taken to court and charged with bigamy. To relieve himself of the guilt he feels for lying to his wife, he shoots himself, becoming no longer a living corpse but a real one.
Anna Dmítrievna Karénina is Victor’s mother, a fifty-year-old “grande dame” who tries to appear younger, and intersperses her remarks with French expressions. The postcard possibly depicts a scene in Act V, when Karénina is knitting on an ivy-covered veranda of a bungalow in the country and states how she hopes that Victor will not forget to bring more wool.
Lilina wears a long-sleeved dress with embroidery detail and a high-neck fan collar. She is shown seated in a wooden chair, her hands are holding wool and she is in the act of knitting a white blanket. She looks up to the right-hand corner.
The postcard was published by A. A. Gorozhankin and the photo was taken by Karl Fischer, a prominent German-born Russian photographer who was the official photographer for Imperial Theatres between 1892-1915.
