Alexander Palace interiors

Antonio:

There was also a lovely porcelain done of this bust of Alexandra in France around 1903.

Bob

Hello Bob,
I suppose you mean that very lovely  bust that appears in the book Nicholas II, the imperial family, that is preserved in Peterhof, isn´t it?
Thanks for the information,
Antonio.

What happend to the stairs in the palace? Are there any pictures of how they look now?

The stairs of Nicholas and Alexandra´s wing are to my taste very simple, marble stairs, i think, and blue painted typical iron railings. Don´t know how they looked like before the war but the must be very similar in its present estate. Perhaps the had some paintings and a carpet...really not know for sure.

Antonio.

Ok, I simply must ask.
What with all this absolutely marvelous discussion of the interiors, how accurate were the depictions in the film N&A ?
for that matter, even in Fall of Eagles?
Were the set designers fairly spot-on?
Cheers,
Robert

Thanks Bob for your wonderful enlargements of the Kaulbach painting et. al. Is it the original that hangs in teh Formal recption room now or a copy???

To Mr. Hall although the movie N& A won several Academy Awards for costume and set design none of it wass filmed in Russia the principle photography I believe was in the Royal Palace in Prague Checkoslovakia the made for TV Movie on Catherine the Great I beleive was the first shot at Tsarskoe Selo for the west. It contains an interesting irony showing a young Catherine conversing with the British Ambassador while walking the Cmaeron Gallery which of course was built for her Much later ...But the scenes in teh Catheirne Palace are absolutely gorgeous!!!

I am an aritst and Historian and I am working on a cutaway drawing of the palace as it looked during the regin of Nicholas II I have partially finsihed Alexandra's rooms but would appreciate anything anyone has on the rooms, colours, dimensions and any photographs that might have been previously unavailable, particularly of the corridors, Nicholas's Dressing room, the walls facing the windows in teh Parade ROOM. Al;so did the doors in the Portrait Hall and Billiard Hall open to the garden as they appear in photgraphs???

Ok, I simply must ask.
What with all this absolutely marvelous discussion of the interiors, how accurate were the depictions in the film N&A ?
for that matter, even in Fall of Eagles?
Were the set designers fairly spot-on?
Cheers,
Robert

Hey Bobby-

I have the set plans from "N/A" and some photos taken as tests, so as to general thoughts on this: the only things really copied were sort of thematic-i.e., A's Boudoir, N's study, the bedroom with twin brass beds and walls hung with icons.  No attempt was made to match up colors, papers, carpets, etc.  It was more a "feel" of the Alexander Palace they went for.  So you had, for example, elements of things-like a chaise-longue in the boudoir, and walls hung in a mauve floral paper (but not striped as it should have been), but no real copying.

"Fall of Eagles" is less successful in this respect in that they only did one "real" room on set mock-up-A's boudoir, and that, being L-shaped with marble columns and gilded bases and capitals, wasn't anything like the real room.  Most of the interiors for "FOE" were done at Holkam and Houghton Halls in Norfolk, and at Harewood House in Yorkshire, so they simply relied on what they found there.

Ironically, among the best created sets for a Romanov film were probably those for the wildly inaccurate "Catherine the Great" (1934) and "Rasputin and the Empress"-the latter took great pains to copy things like N's study at the AP, though, again, many of the sets were simplly thrown together to represent what might be found.

Greg King

As a P.S., I should add that the AP sets built for "N/A" consisted of a mere 10 rooms, though all were linked together to form a pretty immense layout-N/A's bedroom, with open doors to blank "other rooms," this opening to the boudoir, both opening to the hall with staircase to the upper floor, N's study, L-shaped to form round a corner of the hall and boudoir and opening to the hall and the long L-shaped hall with columns down which N/A process several times, a larger rotunda-like room near the short end of the hall with columns, and an opening to a blank room fitted with an apse.  The Alexei bedroom set was behind the hall with the stairs, and the other three sets along the hall with columns: two sort of audience rooms on the same side as the boudoir and study, and a very large set that served as Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaievich's palace (where the birthday party for the Dowager Empress took place) which was also converted to serve as the AP chapel in the scene with Alexandra and Rasputin.  It's too bad they didn't preserve the sets as they cost a lot of money-real marble columns and floors (imitation marble warped under the lights)!

Greg King

Bob,

Where is the original Kaulbach of Elizabeth?  Is it at the Russian Museum (after having been taken out of the Sergeievsky Palace) or was it at Ilinskoye??

Nick

Hi Greg
Thanks for the detailed information on the sets.  I agree, wish they had been preserved, however, have been told by several folk in  the industry that most of the items were "recycled" many times for other film & tv projects. A pretty common practice in the industry. [until they finally started to fall apart].
Same with the costumes & uniforms, which I was told were recently [?] sold off. Would have loved to be at that sale!

Joanna:

I know the door was the first window in the Maple Room.   I am not sure how it was modified exactly.  The balcony was damaged during the war and was removed by the Russians after the war.

Bob

You can see the doormat on the balcony just to the left of nicholas's foot in the picture below.  Below that is a device for cleaing your feet before entering the palace.

There isn't a step leading up so you could climb through a window, so I have to think the door extended all the way down.

Bob

About the balcony:
Being in a concert in the Hermitage theater i was surprised when i saw that the iron railings of the stairs leading directly to the foyer from an entrance in the palace embarkment  had the very same design than that of the Empress´balcony. It´s common with iron works to repeat the models for different buildings but had never noticed this one. It would be quite simple to restore the balcony, wouldn´t it?