№ 40
A Family Photograph in the Garden, Late 19th c.

An Afternoon in the Garden with the Tiškevičiai

A large gathering of a dozen-plus people, spanning two or three generations, on a garden or park path beside a pond — evidently a summer afternoon at one of the Tiškevičius family estates. The young men standing at the back wear the same military-school cadet uniform, with its gleaming buttons, that the young Vladislovas Tiškevičius wore in 1880 in exhibit No. 38 — suggesting other sons of the family followed the same path. Seated at the centre is an officer with an elaborately waxed moustache and medals on his chest; beside him, an elderly couple and a cluster of children, among them several young girls with long, loose braids.

This photograph has not yet been located in LIMIS or other public sources, so its exact date, photographer, and the identities of everyone in it cannot be confirmed. But the women's dress silhouettes — narrower, without the puffed "leg of mutton" sleeves seen in the 1896 studio family portrait (exhibit No. 39) — suggest this moment was captured earlier, likely still in the 1880s. That raises the question of whether the medal-bedecked officer at the centre might be Count Juozapas Tiškevičius (1835–1891) himself — known, per exhibit No. 39, to have been a colonel in the Russian army reserve — caught here, still alive, among his children and grandchildren.

The animation brings a single gesture to life: the man standing on the left extends his arm and points at something beyond the edge of the frame — as if he had just drawn everyone's attention to something happening by the lake or deeper in the park — and the rest of the group turns to look where he's pointing.

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