My aunt, Eleanor Pringle, married Serge Plaoutine, A.D.C. to the Tsar. He was a dear man but not a typical Russian. After he retired and they lived in St. Petersburg, on the Neva, opposite the well-known tower and prison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, we liked looking in shops for curios. On one such outing, Uncle Serge found – in a shabby little second-hand shop – an old painting of St. George slaying the Dragon and paid 90 roubles for it. It was a tiny St. George & Dragon – no larger than a postcard.
When Aunt Nell & Uncle Serge left Russia, they took the painting with them to their home in Nice. After the Revolution, Aunt Nell & Uncle Serge had no money, except a tiny sum from the small legacy of her brother, Admiral Pringle. My Mother had to write for Aunt Nell to the three cousins — the Duchess of Sermoneta, the Countess of Crawford, and Lady Kennedy – who did what they could.
When we came back from a visit, on our last trip at the beginning of the First War, we brought the painting over to England in our luggage, quite innocent of the laws that might have got us a prison sentence for taking a valuable antique out of the country.
Evelyn Mason very kindly offered to try to sell it. Unfortunately, the head specialists (two most considered critics in pictures) were interested in each claiming to identify the artist as one of two different painters and so held up any chance of selling and killed its present value.
Evelyn then offered to buy it for £1,500 and was thankfully accepted. That was all the Russians gained. Later, it was sold by Evelyn's daughter, who inherited it, for £220,000. She gave me £100, of which I gave Nelly half.
SAINT GEORGE & THE DRAGON
An oil on wood panel painting. The painted surface is 4-1/8 x 5-5/8. The overall dimensions are 4-5/8 x 6". Painted c. 1432-1435. Currently attributed to the Dutch painter, Rogier Van Der Weyden. (Physical description taken from National Gallery of Art website.)
AUNT ELEANOR
Eleanor Hester Mary Pringle, London-born daughter of Lt-Colonel John Henry Pringle & Georgiana Ramsbottom, wife of Uncle Serge, and sister of EV's mother.
UNCLE SERGE
Aunt Nell's Russian-born husband, General Sergei Nikolaevich Plaoutine, son of General Nikolai Fedorovich Plaoutine & Severin Iosifovna Kalinowski.
HOME IN ST. PETERSBURG, ON THE NEVA
24 Quai de la Cour, St. Petersburg, purchased in 1894, after Uncle Serge retired, and owned until the Russian Bolsheviks stole it in 1918. It can be found now as 24 Winter Palace Embankment.
LEFT RUSSIA
According to family members, Aunt Nell and Uncle Serge left St. Petersburg for the last time in 1914.
ADMIRAL PRINGLE
Rear Admiral John Eliot Pringle, brother of Aunt Nell, son of Lt-Colonel John Henry Pringle and Georgiana Ramsbottom.
THREE COUSINS
The three daughters of Edward Bootle-Wilbraham and Emily Ramsbottom (Aunt Nell's Aunt). Princess Teano, Ada Constance Bootle-Wilbraham, married to Onorato Caetani (Duke of Sermoneta). Emily Florence Bootle-Wilbraham, married to James Ludovic Lindsay (26th Earl of Crawford). Evelyn Adela Bootle-Wilbraham, married to John Gordon Kennedy.
OUR LAST TRIP
EV and her mother spent the winter of 1914-1915 with Aunt Nell and Uncle Serge. This would be the trip home (in Spring 1915) when the painting was removed from Nice to England.
EVELYN MASON
Evelyn Mason Lindsay, daughter of James Ludovic Lindsay (26th Earl of Crawford) and Emily Florence Bootle-Wilbraham, making her the daughter of Aunt Nell's cousin. Wife of James Francis Mason of Eynsham Hall, Witney, Oxfordshire, England.
TWO DIFFERENT PAINTERS
Attributed, at different times, to one of two brothers: Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck. There was much debate, in the 1920s, as to which brother actually painted it. Somewhere between 1957 and 1979, it was attributed to one Rogier van der Weyden. In other words, they don't know, for sure, who painted it.
EVELYN'S DAUGHTER
Joan Mason married Lawrence Austen Impey (descendant of Jane Austen).
NELLY
Elena "Nelly" Denissieff, first daughter of Sergei Fedorovich Denissieff and Vera Sergeyevna Plaoutine, wife of Count Kyril Armfelt, and daughter of EV's cousin.
ILLUSTRATIONS
1) St. George & the Dragon (attributed to Rogier van der Weyden)
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