Sunburned

basically it was alright for men to be tanned but not for women

well if they had been out in the garden and their hands became dirty - surely they would have washed their hands before the photos?
I know that it wasn't acceptable for upper class women to have a tan, but the girls do look quite tanned. Isn't their the story that they got sunburnt/tanned on purpose before going to Romania so they'd look less desirable?
Even though it was unacceptable for the GDs to get tanned, there must have been incidents when they did get tanned, if only by accident.

Okay, here's my two kopek's worth.

Until recent times--and more about that in a minute--sun-tanned skin was undesirable because it implied that you were not a person of means but more likely a field laborer. Even today, in the United States, we have a term, "red neck," that implies a lower socio-economic strata, even more so than the term "blue collar" vs. "white collar" (physical work vs. desk work).

Men, of course, had a certain amount more lattitude . . . for them darker skin implied a vigorous physicality of the upper class sporting life, i.e., hunting, hiking, riding, tennis, sailing, etc., and certainly Tsar Nicholas exemplified that look.  As we know, women, too, could participate in these activities--and OTMA certainly did--but unlike the male gender they were expected to wear hats and other garments that would protect them against the sun's rays. Why? Because a woman's skin tone implied her gentility. And even though a man might be granted leeway regarding his own complexion, having the income to keep his wife and daughters in a literally sheltered and protected environment was important.

During Edwardian times opinion on these issues (and others, of course) was changing. But it was still the norm for a woman to value a porecelain complexion. Although Alexandra was brought up to be a healthy young woman who would be ready to participate in a certain amount of outdoor exercise, she seems to have followed the guidelines of the day with regards to wearing hats or carrying parasols. And while Tsarina Alexandra became increasingly sedentary with the years, Princess Alix had enjoyed the outdoors--but all the same, she was not a hoyden! So her remark years later regarding the dismay she was feeling about her daughters browning themselves out in the sun further underscores her own attitude on this matter. However, since OTMA frequently were outside with their father, playing tennis, hiking, walking about the Standart, etc.,  it seems they probable they did have greater opportunity to do as they wished.

One of the people who helped bring about a tanning vogue--but after the Revolution--was Coco Channel, the dress designer who also for a time had designs on Grand Duke Dmitri. ;^) Women's fashions by then had changed considerbly, due in no little part to Madmoiselle Channel's designs, but this was exactly an all-of-a-sudden phenomena. Grand Duchess Irina's 1914 wedding apparrel, for example, showed a shift toward the drop-waisted style that would later become de rigeur in the 1920s. Coco Channel, however, was at the forefront of "revolutionary" (sorry) changes in dress and toilette, along with the fashionable new tanned skin look. All the same, many women of the time--"well bred" conservative women--continued to avoid the sun. This was the case with my great-grandmothers, grandmothers, and even my mom . . . until in the 1940s when she could spend holidays at the beach with friends, away from the control of her own parents.  Years later she had numerous skin cancer scares, and her skin wrinkled sooner than many of her more cautious friends. If you've seen photos of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna in her later years, you'll also note the sun's damage, for the Tsar's youngest sister was an avid gardener who didn't place tremendous value on delicate appearance. And while I'm with her on this, it's of course inevitable that our complexions, if unprotected, eventually do suffer the consequences. 

When OTMA appeared before the Romanian public during their brief summer 1914 visit, people were apparently stunned to see them with sunburned faces; this ran counter to their image as delicate daughters of the Tsar! We know that OTMA conspired to do this, but their previous experiences in the outdoors--on land and at sea--must have made the sunburning/tanning process much more accessible, despite any objections by their mother.

Getting back to that posed indoor photo of the four girls sitting in a row, it's difficult to draw absolute conclusions about their tanning or lack thereoff. I've always found the photo a bit perplexing because of the fact that the lighting IS strange . . . posed though it may have been, I doubt the photographer was a hired professional. Instead of being photographed against an artistic backdrop or carefully arranged area, they are surrounded by a large, knick-knack and furniture-filled room. The shadows and lack of retouching also indicate a lack of formality; this appears to have been a photograph slated for their scrapbooks. It does seem the grand duchesses are wearing dresses with necklines which betray a certain amount of sun exposure; it's possible that could be due to the lighting, but wouldn't the shadows be closer to the garments? The coloration of the hands, placed as they are closer to the camera, might well be influenced by the light/lack of light; a black and white photograph can be subject to all sorts of situations. What we can surmise, however, is that this photo was not planned for publicity purposes. What we know is that the grand duchesses enjoyed a joke, that they did enjoy purposeful sun exposure, and that they might have planned such a photo, showing what we now call "tan lines"--or possibly not planned it but upon seeing the results have been very much amused.

You set me straight, Janet_W!

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

thanks for the information!

but that picture was when they were underhouse arrest right?

and they did have a garden that they worked on... so that may be a possibility.

Grandduchess_42: do you mean this photo:


If so, I believe this was taken in 1915, so before their house arrest.

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

thanks for the picture
but no its not... i'll post it soon

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

ok i found the picture!
as you can see... they look very tan here! and i once read that they spent most of their time on their little garden they made

where abouts do you think they were tanned? I can't say anything jumps out at me. Perhaps we'd be able to see more clearly on a better version. Anyone got one?

Yes, I've read many a time that they spent a lot of their time in the garden at the AP during their housearrest.

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

well Marie
her face looks definatly tan to me... all their faces do.

sorry thats the only version i have.

Actually, yes - Maria's face does look a bit tanned. I guess being outdoors so much did lead to them being tanned more.

I only have a bigger version in colour - so no use really.

However I do have a different photo (taken at the same time) but without Maria and with Alexei:

[. My Pictures from the Past .]

aw yes i have that one too!
but its a bit bigger

hmm... my one is bigger than the way it is displayed; the board must have compressed it. i'll just edit it.

Okay, so it's not letting me edit my post....

so here's the URL:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d61/SaraFeodorovna/OAAT1917.jpg

Grandduchess_42, how do you display the little previews with photobucket?

Yes...They looks very tanned. But at the same time, I can notice they were less healthy than before. Maybe it was they were recovering from measles...

RealAnastasia.

The lighting is strange, but yes, they look tan. I have always thought that. I enjoyed what Janet W said at the end of her post, and thought that last paragraoh quite true. They look tanned, but it could be the lighting. I think otma were tanned at times due to the fact they did spend time outdoors, and may not always have covered up- social mores were changing. But whether that is the case in this photo is hard to say. Alexandra, I am sure, didn't like them at all tan. We have evidence of that, and also that the girls thought it was a joke to be tan. Perhaps this photo was taken soon after they came back from Romania, when we know they were very tan on purpose? They could have been tan otherwise of course.