Empress Maria Alexandrovna,wife of Alexander II - discussion and pictures

[Maria_Pavlovna]

I see, gotcha ya. Base on what I have read about them (Alexander II and his wives) over the years - that is my expression of them. Opinion wise I suppose. True will we never know if Ekaterina would be if she was crowned Empress. as for Maria Alexandrovna, she was unpopular and was hardly at court due to her health, which isnt an opinion but a fact.

[Joseph_Kaiser]

Hmmm, it is interesting to think that on one side, court, society and the general public were shocked at the Alexander II flaunting his mistress so openly in front of everyone including the Empress but on the other side the Empress herself wasn't very popular at court. 
I kind of think that Alexander II was going through a mid life crisis

[Maria_Pavlovna]

True! Because of that Empress Maria Alexandrovna was greatly pitied and many courtiers took her side and despised the Mistress Ekaterina! However Maria Alexandrovna’s unpopularity didn’t change much.

[Joseph_Kaiser]

Poor woman, glad that many of the court did that.  I remember reading in Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar about how the whole court knew when Ekaterina became Alexander's mistress.  You can just imagine what the Empress thought or who was the one who told the Empress. 

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, new to me: Click here!!

[Svetabel]

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, new to me: Click here!!

A bad copy of Winterhalter I would say.

[Carolath Habsburg]

I agree. She looks dreadful!

[Kalafrana]

A major reason why the court were shocked at Alexander's flaunting of his mistress was that she was a young unmarried girl from one of the greatest families in Russia.

Ann

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Hmmm... it's not really a copy but the painter definitively used the Winterhalter one as a model -he ruined it, I accept-.  She looks terribly languid besides the bad work that the painter did. :-/

[Carolath Habsburg]

Winterhalter was a genious.  Look at this studio portrait of Maria, It was inspired in the famous portrait, but somehow, she looks a bit older than in the other one



 

[Carolath Habsburg]

Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, new to me: Click here!!

Not Maria Alexandrovna , but another lady

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:E.S._Kaznakova_(Neklyudova)_by_I.Makarov_(1861).jpg

Dont trust so much in inet tags. In that flickr gallery i found TONS of mislabeled images, so watch out! ;-)

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Wow! We were blaming the painter for doing a bad job with the portrait and it wasn't true, the lady portrayed was a Russian indeed but not the Empress Maria Alexandrovna! Yes, frequently the pictures are mislabeled, for the next time I'll consider more seriously about the reliability of certain captions. Thanks for pointing this out! (x_x)

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

The Empress...


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[Dru]

Maria Alexandrovna by Jacotin.

[GDNastya]

Maria Alexandrovna by Hau