could u live in a house like that?

[Clemence]

today I'm shocked! I've seen some sequences showing alix's room some 10 years after the if death and (forgive me, it's hard to explain even to myself) I feel something like nausea. One thing I know for certain - what an awfull atmosfere in that rooms, in that house! How could they live in rooms decorated in such a grim way? I know it was the style of the times, still I find it so so so scary I think I could die if I ever got there. Any of u ever had such thoughts?

[Robert_Hall]

No. And the word is "you"

[Arleen_Ristau]

Are you a really young person Clemence?

YES, I could live there.  Very much so in fact.

Arleen

[Clemence]

no, I do not consider myself very young, I'm 35.

[dmitri]

I think it is hard to know by looking at black and white photographs devoid of the colour the Romanovs would have known in their familiar rooms. This family were not used to living in normal sized rooms. They were used to palatial splendour even if on a smaller scale in the Alexander Palace. It is hard I believe for many who are used to living in normal scale house to imagine life in a palace. Thankfully none of us have to clean rooms in palaces!!! Seriously I think the style of the palace has to be seen in the time period when clothes were also very different and of course this was a place where servants and soldiers were on duty.   

[Clemence]

dmitri, ofcousrse you're right, but I meant was somehow different. I never really understood how people at that time managed to live in houses so full of objects everywhere (horror vacui I think was the term descriving that?) and Jugendstil is not my favourite style of all times. also I find it very strange that they had a tapistry showing Marie Antoinette in their home! don't you fiind it all a bit morbid? I'be scared to death if I had to stay a night in there!!!

[Forum Admin]

Clemence,

I think you are really projecting modern preferences onto the historical past. What in the world is morbid about having a tapestry of Marie Antoinette? We have photos of Nicholas and Alexandra and their children up in our house. Is THAT morbid? I don't think so. Also, I think you do miss the point about the black and white photos not really showing the lightness and color of the Meltzer decorations.

Here for example, is a photo of the Mauve Room Bob Atchison colorised to approximate the original colors, although the Lampas Violette fabric on the walls and upholstery actually has an opalescent sheen to it which doesn't show here.

[dmitri]

Yes it is important to try to understand the context in which the inhabitants lived in the Alexander Palace. I think that is pretty difficult for most people today. I sometimes think these places require well executed figures in period clothing to give people an idea of what the inhabitants would have worn during the period. This is very successfully done by Madame Tussauds at Warwick Castle in United Kingdom. Empty palace rooms otherwise become lifeless museums and people then find it very difficult to imagine anybody ever lived in them. I guess that is why working royal palaces have a great deal more charm than ones that are simply museums. A huge amount of work would have to be done to the Alexander Palace to bring them up to anything like they were before the destruction caused due to world war two. Many of the items that were once in the rooms still exist but are of course elsewhere. I still think though as they currently exist they do give some idea, even if remote, of how the rooms once were. I must admit people look at the Tapesty of Marie Antoinette knowing her fate and that of the Romanovs. I tend to think when it was gifted to the Romanovs it was a touch in bad taste by the French. It is indeed though a beautiful tapestry. I must admit it would have spooked me though. To think the Romanovs saw it after the abdication of Nicholas II. I wonder what they thought of it then? I guess none of us will ever know the answer.

[Clemence]

about the tapestry: I'm amazed to see how some french diplomats then failed to see how much of bad taste it was as a present! but seeing there are people today that still cannot do so amazes me even more! as for the rest, I agree with dmitri that we souldn't judge a building out of the context of time and situations, but it's also true all these palaces were allready very old when the last zar and his family made a home of it, not to mention the bad/very simple/borghese (in italian) tastes of the young empress, think of all those ikons in her bedroom !!! (and I am a greek orthodox myself ...)

[Vladimir_V.]

I must admit people look at the Tapesty of Marie Antoinette knowing her fate and that of the Romanovs. I tend to think when it was gifted to the Romanovs it was a touch in bad taste by the French. It is indeed though a beautiful tapestry. I must admit it would have spooked me though. To think the Romanovs saw it after the abdication of Nicholas II. I wonder what they thought of it then? I guess none of us will ever know the answer.

They asked Alexandra Feodorovna what would she want to see on this tapestry. She answered: Maria Antoinette. It was her choice!
In one side she wants to sting French President, in other side it characterizes her fatal mood.

[Alixz]

Vladimir:

I had not known that.  Do you have a source for that information?  I would like to read more about it.  I have often wondered why Alix would have a tapestry or a portrait of Marie Antoinette in her boudoir.  It did seem a bit "ghoulish", but if she was poking a stick at the French Government, then it makes more sense.

[Clemence]

never heard of that either! what I (think I)remember is alix stayed in marie antoinettes's bedrooms in her official visit in france (?)

[Eddie_uk]

, but it's also true all these palaces were allready very old when the last zar and his family made a home of it, not to mention the bad/very simple/borghese (in italian) tastes of the young empress, think of all those ikons in her bedroom !!! (and I am a greek orthodox myself ...)

HER home, therefore her choice of style and decoration.

You might not like it but if Alix was comfortable and happy with the rooms then that's all that matters.

Alix was fascinated by Marie Antoinette. When Alix stayed at Versailles she was delighted to stay in the Queens old rooms.

[helenazar]

Vladimir:

I had not known that.  Do you have a source for that information?  I would like to read more about it.  I have often wondered why Alix would have a tapestry or a portrait of Marie Antoinette in her boudoir.  It did seem a bit "ghoulish", but if she was poking a stick at the French Government, then it makes more sense.

It's quite true about the MA tapestry, the original is still hanging at the AP, I saw it at my visits there, and I also saw it when AP went on the road, in NJ. Alexandra identified with MA, and when she was lodged in MA's room at Versailles while visiting France, she felt honored instead of weirded out...

[helenazar]