nicholas

No later than 1914 one would think!

they were first cousins

By October 1914, Germany and Russia were at war. And judging from coverage in NYT, relations had been poor in the Spring of 1914. My suspicion is that this picture was taken earlier, perhaps in May 1913, when Europe's royalty assembled in Berlin for the marriage of the Kaiser's daughter Viktoria Luise. NYT of May 23, 1913 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990CEFDE143FE633A... which mentions that the Kaiser took the Czar for a drive in a motor car -- so that wasn't the occasion for this picture.

Interesting article. The czar and and the king of England both dressed in Prussian military uniforms for the banquet. Quite a shock in light of later events. However, one source says this was a custom of royalty of the era, dressing in each other's uniforms.

Some sources I found say the May, 1913 meeting was their last: "On May 24, 1913, Wilhelm's daughter, Viktoria Louise, was married to Prince Ernest August of Hanover, and the Kaiser invited his cousins, King George V of England and Tsar Nicholas II; this would be the last time the Royal cousins saw each other. " www.geocities.ws/kaiser_prussia/biography_wilhelm2_2.html Bain's photo is a heavily-cropped version of this: www.gwpda.org/wwi-www/willnick/pair2.jpg

Thanks for letting us know!

Nicholas II [Russian: Николай II, Николай Александрович Романов, Nikolai II, Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov (18 May 1868 – 17 July 1918)] the last Tsar of the Russian Empire with his only son Alexei Nikolaevich Romanov (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич) (12 August 1904 – 17 July 1918).

If this picture was from March, 1917, this was probably taken at what was the Russian Army's headquarters in Mogilev, in present-day Belarus, where the Tsar spent long periods as commander-in-chief. He went there on March 7, 1917, during violent riots in St. Petersburg. He was forced to abdicate the throne on March 15, 1917.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_Revolution#Tsar.27s_return...

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_II
ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9D%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexei_Nikolaevich,_Tsarevich_of_Ru...

Czarewitch (on the negative here, written Czarewitsch) is an older variant transliteration of Царе́вич, now more commonly written in English as Tsarevitch, meaning any male son of the Tsar.

And see:

View South East from St Paul's Cathedral, London