Birthday ball/Coming out party

[Alibubba]

Thank you for the replies and pictures---Olga looked so happy and lovely! I have wondered very much what the grand duchesses' 16th birthday necklaces looked like---I've seen Olga and Tatiana pictures when they are wearing necklaces, but they are too far away or fuzzy to really see the designs.  Does anyone know of pictures of the 16th birthday jewels?  Thanks again!

[Carol]

Oh, I always put flowers on my dresse's ribbons during parties. It must be a 16-year-old girl thing!haha
but she does look so lovely on that pic!

Alibubba: why don't you try to upload one of the photos at photoshop and try to aproach and clear the image..?  Maybe you can get at least an ideia of how were their shape and design!

guys, I'm sorry by any language mistake, english is not my main country language.

[grandduchess_42]

was that the first time having her hair up?

[Sarushka]

Yes. All of the GDss began wearing their hair up at age sixteen. I think that was a fairly standard age at that time for young women to put up their hair, both in Europe and the US.

[grandduchess_42]

Yes. All of the GDss began wearing their hair up at age sixteen. I think that was a fairly standard age at that time for young women to put up their hair, both in Europe and the US.

yeah i figured that...
i have to do that...but i convinced my parents to let me wear it now LOL!

thank you sarushka!

[lori_c]

I agree that it would have been impossible to get night photos at that period of time.  However, I do have a photo that was taken at Livadia by the Tsar himself on Olga's 16th birthday.  It's one of my favorite photos of her.

Olga looks positively radiant.  It's so nice to see her smiling and happy when i read about how melancholy she later became.  What a lovely much better memory to have than a young girl on her 16th birthday smiling for her father at the camera!

Thank you so much for the  photo.

[Jarian]

In that picture she really looks like a young women that is joyful

[DonaAntonia]

Hello,
Here is Olga dancing at the St. Petersbourg's Nobility Assembly in 1915. This is a detail from a watercolour by Dimitri Kardovsky.

[imperial angel]

I looked it up on search here and online and couldn't find the answer to this question, which is did Kardovsky paint this from a description of the ball, or was he more just using artistic license? I know he couldn't have been at the ball. Just wondering how accurate the painting is. It's nice to see Olga dancing. On an older thread it says it's also possible Irina A was in this painting.Olga looks much like she did in the 1913-14 formal pictures here.

[DonaAntonia]

I looked it up on search here and online and couldn't find the answer to this question, which is did Kardovsky paint this from a description of the ball, or was he more just using artistic license? I know he couldn't have been at the ball. Just wondering how accurate the painting is. It's nice to see Olga dancing. On an older thread it says it's also possible Irina A was in this painting.Olga looks much like she did in the 1913-14 formal pictures here.

Hi, Imperialangel!

I have a Portuguese catalogue right here and it states the official version, I guess. I will try to translate:

« Dimitry Nickolaevich Kardovsky - 1915.
Ball at the St. Petesbourg Nobility Assembly in Honour of the 300th Anniversary of the House of Romanov on February 23, 1913.
Watercolour, gouache, white lightening, graphite pencil on paper, glued to canvas 89X113 cm.
Provenance: Winter Palace. 1941: transferred to the Hermitage from the State Museum for Ethnography of the USSR people, Leningrad.

In 1913 the House of Romanov celebrated 300 years. A huge ball was held to mark the date. On February 19  (March 4) the IF moved from their permanent residence in Tsarkoe Selo and on February 23 the ball was held in the Assembly.
Here we see the IF in the main box: Empress Alexandra sits in the centre, to left by the column id Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and against the column is grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor's cousin Grand Duke Kyrill Vladomirovich. Behind the ladies standing, are Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duke Nikolai Nickolaevich the younger, Grand Duke Pyotr Nicholaevich and Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. Among the dancers waltzing are the Grand Duchess Olga, the Emperor's eldest daughter, with Prince Ivan Nicholaevich Saltykov. To right the dancers include Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrova, the Emperor's sister, with her cousin Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich.
Kardovsky worked on this painting for 2 years (I think they are just guessing, because of the picture's date) and was probably using photographs since each depiction is obviously from a recognizable portrait.»

When I first saw this watercolour I was struck by its vibrant and careful details (none of which shows on the pic, unfortunately). It is a real masterpiece of portrait, though it is so small and each figure is hardly 8 cm tall.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Wonderful photos :-)

[Olga Maria]

Were there pictures of the place where the ball was held?

[~Aura Angel~]

Does anyone know how tall Olga was on her sixteenth birthday?

[Lucien]

I looked it up on search here and online and couldn't find the answer to this question, which is did Kardovsky paint this from a description of the ball, or was he more just using artistic license? I know he couldn't have been at the ball. Just wondering how accurate the painting is. It's nice to see Olga dancing. On an older thread it says it's also possible Irina A was in this painting.Olga looks much like she did in the 1913-14 formal pictures here.

Hi, Imperialangel!

I have a Portuguese catalogue right here and it states the official version, I guess. I will try to translate:

« Dimitry Nickolaevich Kardovsky - 1915.
Ball at the St. Petesbourg Nobility Assembly in Honour of the 300th Anniversary of the House of Romanov on February 23, 1913.
Watercolour, gouache, white lightening, graphite pencil on paper, glued to canvas 89X113 cm.
Provenance: Winter Palace. 1941: transferred to the Hermitage from the State Museum for Ethnography of the USSR people, Leningrad.

In 1913 the House of Romanov celebrated 300 years. A huge ball was held to mark the date. On February 19  (March 4) the IF moved from their permanent residence in Tsarkoe Selo and on February 23 the ball was held in the Assembly.
Here we see the IF in the main box: Empress Alexandra sits in the centre, to left by the column id Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna and against the column is grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, wife of the Emperor's cousin Grand Duke Kyrill Vladomirovich. Behind the ladies standing, are Emperor Nicholas II, Grand Duke Nikolai Nickolaevich the younger, Grand Duke Pyotr Nicholaevich and Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich. Among the dancers waltzing are the Grand Duchess Olga, the Emperor's eldest daughter, with Prince Ivan Nicholaevich Saltykov. To right the dancers include Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrova, the Emperor's sister, with her cousin Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich.
Kardovsky worked on this painting for 2 years (I think they are just guessing, because of the picture's date) and was probably using photographs since each depiction is obviously from a recognizable portrait.»

When I first saw this watercolour I was struck by its vibrant and careful details (none of which shows on the pic, unfortunately). It is a real masterpiece of portrait, though it is so small and each figure is hardly 8 cm tall.

This watercolour is at the exhibition in the Hermitage Amsterdam at present.

[Grand Duchess Mariana]

I read somewhere that she and Tatiana used to attend some balls . Anastasia and Marie couldn't go cuz' they were too young , I guess ...