Photo of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich with his own autograph

An original and rather rare lithographed portrait with the autograph of the Grand Duke in the margins: "Konstantin 1909". Size 16.2*16.4 cm. Guarantee of authenticity.

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, poetic pseudonym "K. R." (August 10 [22], 1858, Strelna — June 2 [15], 1915, Pavlovsk) was a member of the Russian Imperial House, adjutant General (1901), General of infantry (1907), Inspector General of military educational institutions, president of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1889), poet, translator and playwright. The second son of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Alexandra Iosifovna, grandson of Nicholas I. At baptism, he was awarded the Orders of St. St. Andrew the First-Called, St. Alexander Nevsky and St. Anna, 1st degree, was appointed chief of the 15th Tiflis Grenadier Regiment and enlisted in the lists of the Life Guards of the Horse and Izmailovsky regiments, the Life Guards of Battery No. 5 battery of the 3rd Guards and Grenadier Artillery Brigade (1st battery of the Life Guards of the 3rd Artillery Brigade) and the Guards crew. In 1859, he was enrolled in the lists of the Life Guards of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Imperial Family. In 1865, he was promoted to ensign and awarded the Orders of the White Eagle and St. Nicholas. Stanislav of the 1st degree.

He participated in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. On October 17, 1877, he was awarded the Order of St. George, 4th degree. In May 1878, he was promoted to lieutenant in the Navy. In August 1878, he was appointed wing adjutant. In January — September 1880, he commanded a company of the Guards Crew. In September 1880, he was appointed watch commander on the ship "Duke of Edinburgh", on which he sailed in the Mediterranean until January 1882. In 1882, due to illness, he was transferred to the army department and in August was promoted to staff captain of the Guard. Until the end of 1883, he was on vacation abroad, during which he met his future wife. In December 1883, he was appointed commander of a company of His Majesty's Life Guards of the Izmailovo Regiment. In 1887, he was promoted to captain of the Guards, and on April 23, 1891, to colonel and appointed commander of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. On December 6, 1894, he was promoted to Major General, with confirmation of the post of regimental commander. Honorary member of Moscow University (1895). In 1898, he was appointed to His Majesty's Retinue.

On March 4, 1900, he was appointed Chief Chief of Military Educational Institutions (since March 13, 1910 - Inspector General of Military Educational Institutions), after which he toured all the institutions entrusted to him.

On January 1, 1901, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed adjutant General. On December 6, 1907, he was promoted to general of the Infantry. On March 2, 1911, he was appointed present in the Governing Senate (with remaining in other positions). In 1913, for distinguished service, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was awarded the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st degree (4th degree — 1883, 3rd degree — 1896, 2nd degree — 1903). He was also the chief of the 2nd battalion of the Life Guards of the 4th Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Family, on the lists of the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the Pavlovsky Military and Konstantinovsky Artillery schools, the Page Corps and the Orenburg Cossack Army. Honorary member of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy (since 1904), the Imperial Military Medical Academy and the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy.

In 1887, he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, and in 1889 he was appointed its president ("august President"). On his initiative, the Category of Fine Literature was established at the Department of Russian Language and Literature, according to which famous writers were elected honorary academicians — P. D. Boborykin (1900), I. A. Bunin (1909), V. G. Korolenko (1900), A.V. Sukhovo-Kobylin (1902), A. P. Chekhov (1900) and others. He headed the committee for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin. With the assistance of the Grand Duke, a new building of the Zoological Museum in St. Petersburg was opened.

Konstantin Konstantinovich and his wife and younger children spent the summer of 1914 in Germany, in his wife's homeland, where they were caught by the outbreak of the First World War; they were detained and expelled from Germany. The Grand Duke experienced a new severe shock in the autumn of 1914 with the death of his son, Prince Oleg, in the war. These trials undermined the already weak health of the Grand Duke. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich died on June 2 [15], 1915, in his office in the palace in Pavlovsk, in the presence of his nine-year-old daughter Vera, and was buried in the palace church. He was the last of the Romanovs who died before the revolution and was buried in the grand ducal tomb of the Peter and Paul Fortress.