bowing

Vassily Grigorievich Voskresensky (16 September 1888 – 27 July 1951), usually referred to as Colonel Wassily de Basil, was a Russian ballet impresario. By 1923 Wassily was doing well enough to hire Olga Smimova and Nikolay Tripolitov as his principal dancers on small tours in France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It was at this point he adopted a "stage name" Wassily de Basil (essentially Basil de Basil) in 1923 and gave the name of his troupe as Ballet Russe directed by W. de Basil.[3] Around 1925, de Basil partnered with Alexey Tsereteli (also Zereteli) and Ignaty Zon to form the artist's agency called Zerbason.[4] In 1929–1930 de Basil's ballet troupe acted together with Tsereteli's opera troupe.[5] De Basil, Tseretelli, and Michel Kachouk, the manager of Feodor Chaliapin, became directors of the Opéra Russe à Paris, a company originally formed by soprano Maria Kousnetsova (also Maria Kuznetsova).[4] De Basil and René Blum, ballet director at the Monte Carlo Opera, along with financier Serge Denham, founded the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1931.[6] The ballet gave its first performance in Monte Carlo on January 11, 1932- the national holiday of Monte Carlo. Blum and de Basil did not agree artistically, leading to a 1934 split,[7] after which de Basil formed an arrangement with financier Sol Hurok.[7] Col. de Basil initially renamed the company Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil. De Basil brought the Original Ballet Russe on a tour of Australia in 1939–1940,[6] traveling there aboard the P&O ocean liner RMS Maloja in September 1938. He had earlier organized tours to Australia in 1936–1937 and 1938–1939, although he did not travel with the company. During his visit to Australia, de Basil commissioned work from Australians, especially from designers, who included Sidney Nolan and Kathleen, and Florence Martin. He also instigated a design competition for an original Australian ballet, which was won by Donald Friend with designs for a ballet based on a fictitious event in the life of Ned Kelly. Source; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_de_Basil

An interesting old picture and the Kaiser WAS a man of significance for his time.

Other Bain Agency photos of General Pau:

Wikipedia's entry on General Paul Pau: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Pau

I had thought that this was Kaiser Wilhelm I , grandfather of Kaiser Wilhelm II, after being crowned emperor of the newly reunified Germany in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in January, 1871.
I see from the estimable Miss Mertens' comment on what looks like a related picture that this is Wilhelm II, seen taking his leave of court chaplain Dr. Bernhard Rogge, who had given the main sermon during the coronation ceremony of his grandfather in 1871.

This is a Gustav Liersch postcard, with the identifying info blocked out at bottom:
www.ansichtskarten-center.de/webshop/shop/ProdukteBilder/...