PrinceIoann Konstantinovich and Prince Gavriil Konstantinovich, early 1900s.
The eldest and second son of poet Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich of Russia. As boys, the brothers were often frail and sick and they spent their childhood together living at Oreanda in the Crimea, where the temperate climate improved their healths. Despite their opposing personalities, the brothers — Ioann, the meek and quiet one, and Gavriil, the sociable one — forged a strong sibling relationship that was to last until Ioann’s untimely death in 1918.
Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and Grand Duchess Elizabeth Mavrikievna of Russia with their children on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary at Pavlovsk Palace, 1909.
