Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

in 1907! At first, this fact and that he had bought Alexandra’s painting, led me to some wild
speculations.
And with her patient A. she could only have meant Akhmatova. But how could
Akhmatova have had an affair with an Italian painter in Paris in 1911, a year after she got
married to Gumilev? Were the times even more corrupt than I had assumed?
I ordered a biography of Akhmatova from the library. My eyes grew large. Akhmatova
had visited Paris with Gumilev in early May 1911! Gumilev had been called back to Russia by
some family matter. He had left Akhmatova behind. Independent, young, and lovesick as she
was, she sought consolation in the arms of charming Amedeo Modigliani. Modigliani made
several drawings of her in the nude. Resolute Akhmatova never made a secret of this affair,
one of the drawings remained in her possession until her death.
Later I would find that the postcard showed a photo of the Isle Saint Louis. Strange, why
not the Eiffel Tower? Did Alexandra stay on fashionable Isle Saint Louis? I searched a map of
Paris, on Quai d’Orleans, which the postcard showed, are no hotels, only private houses. And
finally, why should she have carefully kept this postcard with the confession of her remorse?
Simple, this card was the only memoir of Paris she had!
She had sold Modigliani’s painting to Manovsky.
Ingeniously Alexandra had made a tiny pinhole through the photo which connected a
house at 16, Quai d’Orleans with the M. on the other side! That I found out only on a second,
careful examination of the postcard. Manovsky rented that house in 1911!
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