Zinaida Nikolayevna Gippius (1869-1945)
Gippius’s memoir of Polyxena Solovyeva. 1928
Autograph manuscript, Polyxena Solovyova, [Paris, 1928].

In Russian. 35 pages, 220 x 166mm, in black and green ink and pencil, on rectos only of lined paper loosely inserted in a notebook, foliated in pencil. Provenance: Temira Pachmuss (1927-2007, professor of Russian literature at Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign and leading Gippius scholar).

Gippius’s memoir of the poet and illustrator Polyxena Solovyova, and of the Petersburg intellectual milieu of the turn of the century. Although the memoir opens with the words 'She could not stand that when being introducing to someone, they would add "the sister of Vladimir Solvyov', Gippius does in fact begin with her memories of meeting Vladimir in the course of a riotous evening in the 1890s, and the memoir is in fact as much of the Solovyov family and of their social circle in the 1890s and 1900s, with a number of sharply-observed memories, including the wonderful vignette of 'Count Prozor (so absent-minded that one day, seeing us in his own front hall, he began to look for a hat: "Are you leaving? Me too, I'm so bored...")'. Of Polyxena herself, Gippius is dismissive of her appearance ('definitely ugly ... she has thick lips and dark cheeks') but enchanted by her 'very lively, sweet, talkative' character, and emphasises the differing ways in which she expressed herself in mixed company and when amongst women ('It never occurred to me that she was always like that ... in the company of women') – something she links to her lack of a formal education, but also hinting at her lifelong romantic relationship with Natalia Manaseina. Gippius remembers Polyxena's household with her mother in a 'very remote side street' in Saint Petersburg ('this wilderness also had its own provincial charm: gardens behind grey fences, narrow boardwalks...') and records her early impressions of her poetry, written under the masculine pen-name 'Allegro' ('Polyxena agreed that it was not very suitable'). The memoir is curiously dismissive of Solovoyva's talents, noting that 'it always seemed to me that something was missing in Polyxena's drawings and portraits', and in her poetry praises only her 'ability for easy versification', but above all, records a strikingly brave, but also 'passionate, secretive' personality, and the influence of the family and milieu from which she came.

Polyxena Sergeyevna Solovyova (1867-1924) was a Russian Symbolist poet and illustrator, the youngest daughter of the large and talented family of the historian S.M. Solovyov, which included her brothers, the philosopher Vladimir and the historical novelist Vsevolod. The publishing house and children’s magazine Tropinka, which Solovyova founded in 1906, was an influential outlet for the Symbolist group in Russia, including her own poems and drawings. After 1917, she moved with Manaseina and the latter's husband to the Crimea, but her publication was thereafter limited to local periodicals and they were obliged to live in increasingly straitened circumstances. Gippius’s memoir was published in Vozrozhdenie, Paris, in 1959.

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.