Double portrait of Tsar Nicholas II - Lenin

A unique find is exhibited at the Stieglitz Academy.

The canvas was found in one of the oldest schools in St. Petersburg. Image of the Emperor made by the artist Ilya Galkin (1860–1915) during the Soviet's time was hidden beneath a thick layer of water-soluble paint, and the back of the canvas was used by Soviet artist Vladislav Izmailovich for Lenin's portrait.

Almost a century the painting has been decorating the assembly hall of the school until a piece of canvas was torn away by the schoolboys. The hole was draped and a fragment of a picture stored in the school museum.

In 2013, the canvas was examined by the Russian Museum’s restorers and on the back of the portrait of the leader of the world revolution the specialists found the image of a boot. In Soviet times, the author of the painting Vladislav Izmailovich smeared the work of the artist Ilya Galkin with a water-soluble paint to preserve the canvas for posterity.