Empress Alexandra - paintings and portraits

[Carolath Habsburg]

Alexandra & Nicholas in France



 

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

1901? I thought they went to France in 1896. Or did they go both times? I've never read any mention of a 1901 visit...

[Helen]

Yes, they also went to France in 1901. And there's even a book about this visit, an exhibition catalogue in French, with a lot of pictures, including the above one in colour: "Un Tsar à Compiègne. Nicholas II, 1901" ; ISBN 2-7118-4301-7 ; about 150 pp.
http://www.amazon.fr/Tsar-Compi%C3%A8gne-Nicolas-II-1901/dp/tags-on-product/2711843017

[voyageroffreedom]

Coronation:

[voyageroffreedom]

Alexandra:

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

This Russian site includes many modern paintings about the IF, but the ones I want to share here are the first two, showing Alexandra pregnant (if I understood well, pregnant with Alexei ? )....  

[Alixz]

I don't read Russia, but I have my doubts that the portraits of Alexandra pregnant were done with her permission or while she was alive.

Victorian women didn't even "go out" or "receive" while pregnant.  I remember being told that after a woman began to "show" she would stay in and always keep a throw over her lap so as to not show the pregnancy. (I wish that more women today would be half as circumspect.  I get so tired of seeing "bumps" (as they are now called ) at the mall).

Women of Alexandra's day might have been overly circumspect, but women today have no modesty when it comes to being pregnant. It may just be another fact of being human, but so is using the bathroom and I wouldn't want to see that in the center of the mall either.

Does anyone read Russian who an tell us what is written under the pictures?

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

Hmm. I like the one of Nicholas and the one of Nicholas and Alexei very much, they are lovely, and I like the ethereal effect, but the ones of Alix are just weird. The first two I don't like because of the low decolletage, it just seems sort of disrespectful to their memory to paint Alix like that, plus the second one her face is too narrow. If that one of the boy with a candle is supposed to be Alexei, then  He looks like he's 30, not 13 or younger! The one of Alix based on a photo, she looks stiff as a board! The one of OTMA is all right--they look stiff too.

[Carolath Habsburg]

those are moderrn portraits. Alixz ;-D

[Alixz]

I thought they must be modern.  The poses of Alix proudly "holding" her pregnant stomach are way too modern.  Women show off pregnancy in that way now, but as far I as I know not in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

They're deffinitively modern portraits! Not only for the pose but also for the style of the paintings (all). There's no problem at it, it was only result of the imagination of a modern painter. I even doubt that Alexandra would had accepted to be portrayed as this   

[Carolath Habsburg]

I found this one asAlix of  Hesse by John Lavery



 

[RealAnastasia]

Are you sure? It looks nothing like her...

RealAnastasia.

[Carolath Habsburg]

Yup he also have portraits of her father and brother Ernst Ludwig



Here s the link with further info

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/hrh-princess-alix-of-hesse-18721918-84840

[Thomas_Hesse]

To me she looks much like Queen Alexandra (another "Alix"). But this is most definitely not Princess Alix of Hesse!