Royal Portrait: The Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna

(Portrait from the Royal Collection)

The newly-married Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna wrote to her grandmother, Queen Victoria on June 13, 1884, about her portrait by Russian painter Alexander Sokolov.

"He began to do my portrait, and I think he will be very successful. Sergei and I hope that you will enjoy it, and we'll send it to you as a present for Christmas and birthday. You may be interested to know what I wear - a dress of pale pink gauze, a lot of lace, a little open - so you can see the neck and the sleeves are not very long. I hold an open umbrella on one hand and on the other - a large white straw hat with flowers, tied with a pink ribbon. It looks as if I was walking in the garden... " 

First Anniversary of the Death of Grand Duchess Alexandra Nikolaievna

Grand Duchesses Olga and Alexandra Nikolaievna by Christina Robertson (Hermitage Museum)

In the excerpt below, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaievna, Queen of Wurttemberg, remembers the first death anniversary of her beloved sister, Alexandra. The 19-year-old Grand Duchess Alexandra, who was suffering from consumption, died after prematurely giving birth to her son. The baby died as well soon afterwards, and this tragedy profoundly affected the imperial family.

"By the day of the death of Adini, Fritz of Hesse came. We went with him to Tsarskoye Selo, where in a small chapel at the pond was placed a statue of Adini. In the pavilion, which was built for her, waiting to be fed, are black swans. But at the top of the palace there was no longer a balcony in front of her bathroom and the lilac under her windows with their flowering branches reach the window. In the palace chapel a requiem was held. All these memories of last year came bursting in my heart: she was lying with her baby in a sea of colors and it seemed to me that with my beloved sister, I also buried my youth. Then we went to the Fortress [of Peter and Paul] and on that same night we went back to Yelagin [Palace]. When I think about my last summer in my homeland, I am seized with an inexpressible longing for all those who have gone before me to another life.

"Poor Aunt Julia"

Portrait of the Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia,
from the Royal Collection.

The Grand Duchess Anna was born as Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She was an aunt of Queen Victoria. She married Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich of Russia, second son of Tsar Paul I, when she was only 15 years old. The marriage was unhappy and ended in divorce. Anna later settled in Switzerland and died there in 1860.

In 1841, her niece, Princess Feodora went to Geneva, and later reported to her half-sister, Queen Victoria about her meeting with their Aunt Julia: "I went to see Mama and Aunt Julia, who I find very much changed, she looks now an old woman, such a pity, for she was so lovely once. ...Her life full of trials of all kind, her youth thrown away at that court, and now alone, amongst strangers here is indeed a bitter cup to the last... poor aunt, life must be a burthen to her; and her feelings are so young still." 

(Quotes from the Royal Collection.)

Royal Portrait: The Grand Duchess Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia

The future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, consort
of Nicholas I, portrayed here when she was still a grand duchess.
By Henri Benner, 1821 (From the Hermitage Museum)

"On St. Peter's day the imperial family met at the chateau. It was there that I saw the Grand Duchess Nicholas for the first time, and I was struck by the elegance of her form and the beauty of her tall figure. Surrounded by her ladies in waiting, whom she surpassed by a head, you would have said it was Calypso in the midst of her nymphs."

 --From the memoirs of Madame la Comtesse de Choiseul-Gouffier

Royal Portrait: Portrait of Queen Anna of the Netherlands

Portrait of Queen Anna of the Netherlands,

born Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia by Timoteo Neff.

From the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts of Yeketerinburg

(Image from ei.ru)

The Grand Duchess Anna was certainly a force to be reckoned with. She was a lover of pomp and ceremony, never forgetting for a moment that she was a Russian grand duchess before she became queen. In this portrait, a middle-aged Anna was a wearing a Russian court dress adorned with rubies and diamonds and a kokoshnik embellished with pearls, rubies and diamonds.