Re: Tatiana resembles Alix?

[BobAtchison]

I think I have read that Tatiana was most like her mother in her movements and personality while Anastasia looked the most like her.

[Lisa]

Dear Thomas,
I  agree completely with you!I think that Tatiana had the pace of her mother, its maintains and its taste of the domestic businesses. If Olga resembled more to Nicolas physically,  she was strong like her mother. Alix writes it herself in a letter (I do not know any more if it is in a letter to Anna Vyrubova or Nicholas). Tatiana was soft like her father. This is why, in my opinion, Olga and Nicholas were closer, like Tatiana and Alix.
On the photographs, I find that Alexis and Anastasia have the same eyes
as their mother. Maria resembles more to the Romanovs than to the Hesses...

but as you wrote:"But all in all I can't even see the parents in ANY of the children."

[Arleen_Ristau]

I too have wondered who the children looked like and didn't think they looked like either parent.  I've tryed and tryed to vision how Alexis might look grown, especially when the claiments pictures came out....but other than Michael of Kent I haven't a clue.  Marie is by far the most beautiful to me, but no daughter comes close to Alexandra!!  As a young woman she takes your breath away, its not hard to understand Nickolas passion for her.       ..Arleen

[Candice]

I think Olga out of all the children is the one that resembles her mother Alix the most .  

[Janet_W.]

Some years ago the L.A. Times Book Review published a review about a book re: Nicholas and his family.  The photo chosen to illustrate the review was one of Nicholas and Tatiana sitting together during the Tsarkoe Selo imprisonment.  Anyway, the caption for this photo read that it was Nicholas and his wife!  Needless to say, I wrote in immediately, as did a number of other people.  Some said it was one of the other daughters,  but the majority of us identified the young woman as Tatiana.

To me, the children are a physical blending of looks belonging to both maternal and paternal sides.  Olga, I think, most resembles her father's side of the family, i.e., her Aunts Xenia and Olga. Also, in profile she does resemble her father more than her mother.  Tatiana has Alexandra's height and elegance, but her facial features are a blending of both maternal and paternal sides, with her full mouth resembling the fuller lips of her father, rather than the thinner lips of her mother.  Marie has generally been mentioned as having the strength and constitution of her Russian forebearers.  She does seem to have been the most physically robust, with a very pretty face that perhaps is from her mother's side, with regular features more like those of her maternal grandfather.  Anastasia, to me, again seems to blend the features of her parents, slightly favoring her mother's side.  Alexei, however, seems most like his mother's side.  (A bit like Uncle Ernie.)

As I mentioned, Olga's profile (check out that Faberge egg with the profiles of all five children, given to their grandmama) is a Romanov profile, as is Tatiana's, with the Romanov look a bit less pronounced in the profiles of Marie, Anastasia, and Alexei.

[Pravoslavnaya]

I remember remarks about how Alexei's eyes were 'great, grey-blue eyes like his mother's', and in one of the last pictures of him and Tatiana together those two definitely look alike.  Didn't they have the same coloring as Alexandra Feodorovna?

[Louise]

I agree that Olga favours her father's side of the family, and depending on the picture so does Tatiana. There are some pictures of Tatiana where she resembles Irene Alexandrovena. I've been looking in Peter Kurth's book, and will continue pouring over the pictures to try to figure out who Maria and Anastasia resemble.

Alexei is absolutely his mother's son.

Louise

[CayteGrL911]

I personally think that Olga looks like Nicky, Tatiana like Alix, Marie like Nicky, and Anastasia like Nicky. That is just my opinion though. I do think that Alexei looks just like his mother though, which is kind of cute. Sumtimes it's just hard to tell who looks like who cause the childrens looks change drastically as they grow. I guess it's almost impossible to say who looked like who...

.::Cayte::.

[Katia]

I think Tatiana resemled her mother more than her father, just like Anastasia. Tatiana was tall and slender and carried herself superbly just like her mother. She had aubrun hair and her fine features resemled those of Alix. She was also extremely interested in clothes and mode. What a pity the girls were always dressed identically, even when they were quite grown-up! If they had have a possibility to develope their own taste and style, they would not have looked like some "Dionne Quints" (as four!)

Anastasia and Tatiana had lots of common in their looks, although Anastasia was short and tended to be little fat in her teens and liked to "make faces". Olga and Maria looked quite a lot like each other with their charming smiles. Maria's large eyes make her very easy to recognize. In many books of the family the photo textes seem to have confusion which of the girls are there - especially with Olga/Maria and sometimes even Tatiana/Anastasia and Tatiana/Olga!

[Janet Whitcomb]

The photos showing all five children bald after their bout with measles is a good challenge for OTMAA experts . . . identification is not easy unless you have specific memory of the differences in their eyes, their mouth formations and the shapes of their heads!

[Arleen_Ristau]

Right Jonet, that reminds me of Bob knowing which skull belonged to whom.  I think that all of the children took after Alexandra, the Germanic coloring and look of her.  Remember the pictures of a young Nicholas and especially right before he grew his beard.....he has a "different" look to him from his children, sort of exotic, like his sister Xenia looked.               ..Arleen

[nerdycool]

What a pity the girls were always dressed identically, even when they were quite grown-up! If they had have a possibility to develope their own taste and style, they would not have looked like some "Dionne Quints" (as four!)

When they came of age, they chose to dress alike. It's mentioned on the OTMA biographies on this site how when Olga turned 16, she was allowed to create her own wardrobe, but she chose to coordinate with Tatiana (who I imagine had better a better sense of style than Olga, and Olga knew this probably). A little unusual, but I just think it shows how close all the girls were.

But as to who looked like who, I think Tatiana had a mix of her mother and paternal grandmother. In the eye area, I can see traces of the Dowager Empress, and everything else is delicate looking, like Alix's features when she was younger.

[Silja]

I find Alexei looks most like his mother.

[jackie3]

I think Olga definitely took after her father. Everytime I see a picture of her I think she has a "slav" face (oval with wide features), she looks a little like several Russian and Polish female friends of mine. All the more remarkable considering how little actual Russian blood she (or the other Romanovs) actually had. Maria too takes after her father's family - in size and bone structure at least she can be said to resemble her paternal grandfather and some of his generation of Romanov men, the fact the she seemed to get better looking and the "fat" disappearing as she got older I attribute to the Hessian influence.

Anastasia also looks like a descendant of Victoria, if you look at a picture of most of Alix's sisters (including Ella and Victoria) they have this straight nose and long face they inherited from their mother Alice who got it from her father Albert (I think). Anastasia had these characteristics as well. Alexis in the one picture from Tobolsk I've seen him in seems to have grown thinner but facially and bodily and looked more and more like his mother.

Tatiana IMHO seemed the most mixed of the bunch. She got her hair color and willowly figure (look at pictures of the young Alix) while her exotic look resembles somewhat her Aunt GD Xenia (especially the distinctive eyes) - she could have taken after some long dead ancestor several generations back - recessive genes sometimes kick in when you least expect it.

[Sarai_Porretta]

I think that with regards to the children's similarity to each other, of the sisters Olga and Maria looked the most alike. It's hard to explain, but their faces just looked the most similar to each other's than to those of their other sisters. Alexei also looked like them very much. I think all of these three's faces were rounder than the other two's. Tatiana's and Anastasia's faces to me seem slimmer and longer. Out of all of the children, Tatiana to me seems like the odd one out physically, the one with the least physical similiarity to the other children. Alexei definitely looked very much like his mother. Of all his sisters, I think he looked most like Maria.

I marvel at what beautiful children Nicky and Alix were able to produce. Each child is to my eyes honestly very lovely, and had they had more children I'm sure they would have been just as attractive as their siblings. The saying that beautiful children are signs of a happy marriage certainly rings true in their case (I know this is just a saying and there are many exceptions to it, though)!