Alexander Zvigilsky

Knowing about Turgenev’s great kindness, Alphonse Daudet approached him in 1881 with the intention to introduce him to his artist I. P. d’Algheim, a Russian emigrant in Paris, and to facilitate the procedure of getting a passport to Russia. It’s rather ironic that Turgenev, the founder of the Society for Mutual Assistance and Charity of Russian Artists in Paris, had not met d’Algheim earlier. However, after the first encounter, the writer was quick to realize that he was dealing with a man for whom art was the most prominent thing in life, and who was not a dangerous conspirator.