Early life Paul Pavlovich was six months old when his father died. Paul was a sensitive, beautiful, lively and versatile young man with a varied and short-tempered character. His education was planned by his mother and supervised by a governor. Experts were hired to teach individual subjects. He became interested in horses as a child and he took riding lessons, having the privilege of riding the horse of Grand Duchess Maria, from his mother's close relations to the Imperial family. He succeeded in obtaining a law degree in St. Petersburg in 1860. He worked for the state for a short time, e.g. as Extraordinary Secretary to the Russian Delegations in Vienna and Paris. Pearls can be seen in the portrait of Aurora, with the young Paul. However, Anatole Demidov's death in 1870 alleviated the situation of the Demidov company, as his large annuity did not accumulate anymore in the company's expenses.
Married life Paul's troubled life was changed by his falling in love with a lady-in-waiting from
Saint Petersburg, Princess Maria Mescherskaya. Paul met Maria in Paris in the spring of 1867. His first marriage was 1 June 1867 to Princess
Mariya Meshcherskaya (1844–1868). She died two days after giving birth to a son,
Elim Pavlovich Demidov, 3rd Prince of San Donato, at
Hietzing in the suburbs of
Vienna 6 August 1868. Losing his wife had a lasting effect on Paul, who remained inconsolable for a long time, spending a long while in the room in the
Villa San Donato where Maria's dresses were kept, trying to recover her presence. Mother Aurora took charge of little Elim, who became very close to her grandmother. In October 1868, Paul and little Elim and Aurora moved to Paris, where they prepared a residence for themselves. In the memory of his wife Paul set up a workplace for 200 women in the working-class district of Paris. The purpose of the department was to improve the moral and physical life situation of the working class. In 1869 he was appointed to the Kyiv Provincial Government. He held his office well and was promoted to mayor a year later. Paul's uncle, Anatole Demidov, died in Florence in the spring of 1870. Paul permanently resigned from the civil service and moved on to live a great international life as Prince of San Donato. The mansion near San Donato in Florence with its valuable art collections was now been taken over by Paul Demidov. , 1884 1880s He married secondly in Saint Petersburg 2 June 1871 to Princess Elena (Hélène) Petrovna Trubetskaya (1853–1917). The mother of the new spouse, Princess
Elizabeth Trubetskaya, had lived most of her life in Paris, especially after the death of her husband Prince Pjotr Nikitich Trubetskoy (1826–1880). They had six children: • Prince, Count Nikita Pavlovich Demidov (1872–1874) • Princess, Countess
Aurora Pavlovna Demidova (1873–1904) •
Anatoly Pavlovich Demidov, 4th Prince of San Donato (1874–1943) • Princess, Countess Maria Pavlovna Demidova (1877–1955) • Prince, Count Pavel Pavlovich Demidov (1879–1909) • Princess, Countess Elena Pavlovna Demidova (1884–1959) , 1883. Deciding that San Donato was too full of memories of his first wife, Paul bought in 1873 Pratolino, a large farm, from the estate of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. He immersed several millions in its restoration. When the castle-like
Villa Pratolino, now known as
Villa Demidoff, was ready to be inhabited, Paul and his family moved there from San Donato. They ended up selling San Donato, and it was ceded on 5 November 1881 to Gaston Mestayer, a French
business magnate, with the gardens sold separately to Nemesio Papucci and Rosselli Del Turco. A significant portion of the
Demidov collection, housed in 14 rooms at San Donato, was dispersed through a series of sales and public auctions. This included works from the “musée napoléonien” established on
Elba by
Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato, as well as souvenirs that had largely been transferred to him by his father-in-law,
Jérôme Bonaparte.
Life as philanthropist and patron of arts By following his family traditions in charity, Paul Demidov was respected in Russia as well as in Italy and France. Her target areas were schools, universities, libraries, hospitals, pharmacies, folk kitchens, and single mothers' work homes. He supported the renovation of the cities of Kiev and Florence. Because of him, the
Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence was completed. A visible sign of this is the coat of arms of Paul Demidov on the façade of the cathedral next to the main entrance. Owning hundreds of factories in Russia, millions of square kilometres of land and palaces in Russia, France and Italy, Paul was considered as one of the richest men in Europe. He developed the family fortunes and inherited Anatole's title of Prince of San Donato after the latter's death without legitimate issue in 1870, with the title recognised by king
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy two years later. He served with the
Red Cross rather than the Russian military forces during the
Russo-Turkish War and in 1883 he published the pro-Jewish "The Jewish Question in Russia". Paul Demidov died at the age of 45, due to a liver disease. He was buried in the Demidov family mausoleum in
Nizhny Tagil. After Paul's death, his wife, Hélène Trubetskaya, took over the management of the company because all the children were minors, with the youngest only turning seven months old. The estate was divided in 1887 among several owners. Despite many difficulties, the Nizhny Tagil mining and factory area remained family-owned until 1917. == Honours ==