This is a card with a story of its own as well as the story of the picture itself. The picture is that of an estate bought by the Russian painter Ilya Repin. He was admitted as a student at St Petersburg's Imperial Academy of Arts and went on to become a celebrated painter and sculptor. In later life he bought this place in Kuokkala, then part of Finland. In 1930 this are was ceded to Russia and has since been renamed Repino in his honour. It was opened as a museum in 1940 and is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of St Petersburg.
The story of the card is more curious. It arrived in an envelope although the card inside was stamped and postmarked. The letter enclosed told me what had happened. The card was returned to the sender because the stamp was damaged. If you look closely you will see that there is, admittedly, one corner missing from the stamp. I have to say I've used stamps with corners missing before now.
But more curious still is the fact that the card was returned to the sender, Andrey. His return address is nowhere on the card, nor is his full name. He has no idea how it got back to him, but it did, so he put it in an envelope and sent it on its way once more. It took 66 days to get to me.
This is a post for Postcard Friendship Friday hosted on Beth Niquette's blog, The Best Hearts are Crunchy.
Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the tale of the postcard. Very pretty, by the way. A beautiful building and beautiful site -
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a crazy story!! How on earth did it get back to him? Very intriguing indeed.I love the story and the postcard itself. It is my first day back from leave so I originally thought you said that Finland was called Kuokkala, not that Kuokkala was part of Finland. It makes sense to me now that they renamed it Repino. I need more tea.
ReplyDelete