Count Michael Mikhailovich de Torby (8 October 1898 – 25 April 1959) was a Russo-German nobleman, an artist living in the United Kingdom.
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Early life and ancestry
Born as the only son of Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia (1861–1929), exiled member of the House of Romanov, and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie of Merenberg (1868–1927), descendant of the House of Nassau-Weilburg. He was the great-grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia and Russian poet and novelist, Alexander Pushkin.
Biography
Count Mikhail Mikhailovich de Torby was the youngest child and only son of Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovich and his morganatic wife Countess Sophie von Merenberg. The marriage was not only morganatic but also illegal under the Imperial house laws and caused a scandal at the Russian court. The Grand Duke was forbidden to return to Russia for life so he moved to England.
Mikhail was educated at Eton College. While there, he contracted measles, and went to Switzerland to recover. While there, he began displaying symptoms of his bipolar disorder, and later he later lived in a mental hospital in Uxbridge. A gifted artist, his work is distinguished by "pleasant colours and free style." He had a special fondness for Chinese subjects and their works created mainly on rice paper in a thin Chinese-style. He was a collector of Chinese porcelain, which he often portrayed in his still lifes. He also served as a theatre artist.
He took British citizenship in 1938, when he was forty years old.
He died 25 April 1959 without issue.