BIBIKOFF, Massia.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Our Indians at Marseilles. First and only contemporary edition. Diary of a young Russian artist which encapsulates the enthusiasm with which Indian soldiers were greeted by the French. An extremely attractive production for the date, richly illustrated, and uncommon.Bibikoff was a student of Detaille and an accredited war artist with the Army Museum, and like so many others in France she was completely smitten by the troops arriving from South Asia; "Bibikoff's diary is so strikingly honest and open that it is difficult to believe that it was ever intended for publication... She seems to have been completely carried along by the great outburst of excitement, nationalism, romanticism, and orientalism that consumed Marseilles in the autumn of 1914; yet her diary is completely lacking in racial judgement; rather, there is a heartfelt fascination with, and sympathy for, the Indian soldiers" (Olusoga p.45). Its scarcity surely suggests that it may indeed not have been intended for wider distribution. The book is dedicated to the grand duchess Olga Nikolaevna, Nicholas II's oldest child who was murdered at Yekaretinburg in July 1918. Bibikoff herself sadly died at Nice in 1923, aged just 28.

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