#maria nikolaevna

[roses-of-the-romanovs]

1915. This is a very popular photo for crops. But where is Maria?

[otmaaromanovas]

A French writer recalls meeting the Romanov sisters

During WWI, French journalist and writer Amélie de Néry, who went by the pen name Marylie Markovitch, was invited to have a private audience with Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. During this meeting, she was introduced to the four Grand Duchesses by the Tsarina.

In January 1916, her recollections were condensed and published in multiple newspapers throughout America and Europe. She wrote:

With a charming smile she took my hand and told me she was very happy to receive a representative of the women of France, who, like their sisters in Russia, had so bravely borne their burden of anxiety during this cruel war. 'Let me introduce you to my daughters,' she said as soon as I thanked her for granting me an audience. 'This is Tatiana.' Grand Duchess Tatiana also shook hands with me and said she was very much interested in meeting a woman journalist for the first time. She is a beautiful girl, with big blue eyes, full of life, illuminating her fair, young face. At this moment the door opened and a young girl, also in the garb of a sister of mercy, entered the room. 'And here is Olga, my little French daughter' said the czarina. Grand duchess Olga is no less beautiful and charming than her younger sister, but she is more calm and there is something of the serenity of the mystic about her. As the czarina referred to her stay in Paris, it seemed to me as if a dreamy expression came into the daughter's dark soulful eyes. ‘Colonel de Vitchkowsky will introduce you to my two other daughters,' said the czarina, as she parted from me to take up her duties in the operating room; and once more I felt the firm grip of her hand. The two little grand duchesses, Marie and Anastasia, were in the convalescent ward. I found that both, wearing plain white dresses and red hats, standing close to an officer who, seated on the window sill, was playing the balalaika. They both shook hands with me and the music went on.

📍SOURCES: Amélie de Néry; LA Raconteuce, ‘Find Writer Finds Czarina Hard At Work’, El Paso Herald newspaper, 6 January 1916. Her full recollections can be found in Amélie de Néry, ‘L’Imperatrice en Voile Blanc’ in Revue Des Deux Mondes, (1916), p. 566

📍PHOTOS: Photograph albums of the Grand Duchesses, public domain; Photographs of Amélie de Néry: Portrait de Mme Marlie [sic] Markovitch, Femina publication, 122, February 1906, p. 75, public domain

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

The Photo vs Behind the Scenes

Photo 1: Grand Duchesses Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia with Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich of Russia, pushing maternal first cousin Prince Georg Donatus of Hesse and By Rhine in a cart, Wolfsgarten 1910

Photo 2: the same people on the left along a nanny or governess, maybe Prince Heinrich of Prussia standing on the stairs, and Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia playing with Prince Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine, Wolfsgarten 1910

[laurapetrie]

The girls were addicted to perfumes, and when they bathed at night, the water was perfumed and softened with almond bran. They always used Coty. Tatiana favoured Jasmin de Cors; Olga, Rose Thé; Marie constantly changed her perfumes, but was more or less faithful to Lilas, and Anastasia never deviated from Violette.

Lili Dehn, The Real Tsaritsa (1922)

[graceofromanovs]

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with three of his daughters Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana and Maria, 1912.

Source @teatimeatwinterpalace (gifs), Royalty In Colour (colorisation).

[romanovsonelastdance]

OTMA 1910: the common shots and the less common shots.

[la-belle-histoire]

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia, Christina Robertson. 1841.

[krasivaa]

Grand Duchesses Maria Nikolaevna, Anastasia Nikolaevna and Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia in 1913.

[imperial-russia]

The Imperial Family in the Livadia Palace by Daria Buravtseva

"In my work ... I set the task of showing a long-gone era, and people whose fate personifies the tragedy of the Russian Empire. One day I was traveling the Crimea and visiting palaces, wandering through museum halls filled with Crimean air and scorching sun. At that moment, a long-gone era appeared before me as if it were yesterday.

I wanted to show the Romanovs not as the royal seven, but as living happy people. I had a desire to show that history is multifaceted and consists not only of tragic moments but is also full of happy moments in the lives of historical figures."

[worldoftheromanovs]

Anastasia Nikolaevna, Maria Nikolaevna and Tatiana Nikolaevna in Mogilev, August 24th 1916

From Anastasia’s 1915-1916 Album

[roses-of-the-romanovs]

The Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna in 1911. Doesn’t she remind you of the Little Mermaid?

[otmaaromanovas]

New photographs of the last Romanov family (scroll to see them all!)

Some of the photographs were previously only available for viewing in very low resolution - see these photos for before vs after to show the difference!

The photos mostly originate from the meetings of the Romanov family with their Hessian relatives: the Tsarina’s brother Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig, his wife Grand Duchess Eleonore, and their children, Georg Donatus and Ludwig. Photographs include the family on the Standart yacht, in the Livadia Palace dining hall, and at events greeting the public, from around 1910 to 1912.

Sources and photos: 

📍Ольга, @om871218 (Pinterest), [accessed November 2024]

📍Darmstadt (Hesse), Hessisches Staatsarchiv Darmstadt

— I have cropped the photos so just the images are shown, and no background walls/screens 

[foreverinthepagesofhistoryy]

Extremely rare photo of Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna (sitting on the balcony), Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna (making a funny face), and Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna (crouching), 1912

Source: Hessian State Archives

[laurapetrie]

FAVORITE OTMA PHOTOS: MARIA She was born good, I often think, with the very smallest trace of original sin possible. She is a very fine and pretty child, with great, dark-blue eyes and the fine level dark brows of the Romanoff family. She has the face of one of Botticelli’s angels. But good and sweet- tempered as she is, she is also very human. She is constantly held up as an example to her elder sisters. They declared she was a step-sister. Vainly I pointed out that in all fairy tales it was the elder sisters who were step-sisters and the third was the real sister. They would not listen, and shut her out from all their plays. One day they made a house with chairs at one end of the nursery and shut out poor Marie, telling her she might be the footman. She suddenly dashed across the room, rushed into the house, dealt each sister a slap in the face, and ran into the next room, coming back dressed in a doll’s cloak and hat, and with her hands full of small toys. "I won’t be a footman, I'll be the kind, good aunt, who brings presents.” They had learned their lesson—from that hour they respected her rights in the family. - Margaret Eager, Six Years at the Russian Court (1906)

[maurineromanovs]

Romanovs lookalikes

[romanovsonelastdance]

Alexandra Feodorovna with her daughters, 1913.

Another example of "old timey Photoshop." All the other postcard versions of this image are landscape; for some reason this one was published in portrait orientation. That meant they had to draw in the rest of Alix and Maria's skirts as well as the chair. They didn't . . . they didn't do great. The draping on Alix's especially looks very stiff and unnatural, being so straight. You can also see editing above Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia's heads where they had to fill in background that wasn't there.