Maureen O'Leary American, b. 1965
Prince Andrei thinks among his linden trees, 2023
Oil on linen
20 x 14 inches (50.8 x 35.6 cm)
CT-11216
An invitation came for Natasha to sing in Moscow in May of 1827 at Zinaida Volkonskaya’s salon. Even Polina would be there by Zinaida’s determined efforts. Natasha could not refuse...
An invitation came for Natasha to sing in Moscow in May of 1827 at Zinaida Volkonskaya’s salon. Even Polina would be there by Zinaida’s determined efforts. Natasha could not refuse this invitation as she had never before been asked to perform in such grand circumstances. But Prince Andrei was still forbidden to travel.
“This is impossible! I must be free to go with her.”
Prince Andrei went outside alone, out where he always went to think, to his linden allée. There he walked and walked, his body tense and his hands clasped. Hours passed.
He resolved to provoke those keeping him under house arrest with a letter to Viazemsky that revealed nothing (for he did not wish to endanger Pyotr too) but a letter he knew would be opened and read by the tsar’s secret police, a letter that would prod them to act. One night just weeks later the house staff warned that the police had been seen at the last changing station near Bogucharevo and were coming to take Prince Andrei’s writings.
“This is impossible! I must be free to go with her.”
Prince Andrei went outside alone, out where he always went to think, to his linden allée. There he walked and walked, his body tense and his hands clasped. Hours passed.
He resolved to provoke those keeping him under house arrest with a letter to Viazemsky that revealed nothing (for he did not wish to endanger Pyotr too) but a letter he knew would be opened and read by the tsar’s secret police, a letter that would prod them to act. One night just weeks later the house staff warned that the police had been seen at the last changing station near Bogucharevo and were coming to take Prince Andrei’s writings.
