Nicolas 2. Tsar of Russia Painting

This artwork is a copy of a well known portrait of Nicolas 2, which was made by the great Russian artist Valentin Serov. So my artwork was inspired by reading a big deal of books about this Great Imperor. I love him so much and adore him as a person and as Tsar. Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov ( 1868 – 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, was the last Emperor of All Russia, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. During his reign, Russia embarked on a series of reforms including the introduction of civil liberties, literacy programs, state representation, and initiatives to modernize the empire's infrastructure. There were enormous strides in agriculture and industrial production, jointly with huge economic leaps forward, and enormous progress in health, education, and social services.Ultimately, this progress was undermined by defeats sustained by the Russian military in World War I and economic mismanagment during the war. By early 1917, the first Russian revolution, a general strike joined by city's garrison mutinies in the capital forced Nicholas, as he was away at the front with loyal troops, to abdicate the throne, thereby ending the Romanov dynasty's 300-year rule of Russia. In the years following his abdication, Nicholas was reviled by Soviet historians and state propaganda as a "callous tyrant" who "persecuted his own people while sending countless soldiers to their deaths in pointless conflicts". More recent assessments have characterized him as a well-intentioned, hardworking ruler who ultimately failed because of adverse events.