Sunday, March 13, 2016

From my collection - two postcard portraits of the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, circa 1914


The original photographs were taken by the Boissonnas & Eggler studio, favored by the Imperial family at that time for their formal portraits.
This card is German; it was not at all unusual at the time for European postcards to portray the royal families of - other - countries. Of course,
the Empress was also German by birth. (Hessen und bei Rhein, to be specific). It should be noted, too, that the Empress' figure has been un-
necessarily slimmed by retouching here, both fore and aft.

***

Another pose from the same sitting.
A slightly different crop of the first image.
The tiara worn by the Empress in these photographs. It was originally made for the Empress Elisaveta Alexeievna, the wife
of Tsar Alexander I, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Catalogued during the period the Bolsheviks were selling
off many of the country's Imperial-era treasures, it has not been seen since the mid-Twenties and is presumed broken up.



5 comments:

  1. interesting they were slimming down then, when I thought the belle epoque (maybe a bit earlier than these) was all about VERY FULL bustlines -haha. That tiara is gorgeous, I'd even wear it!

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    1. She was what we'd call statuesque, a "fine figure of a woman", and not at all "chubby". No need to be whittled away, as she has been here.

      But, I know, the diamonds! Including the huge stones in the "riviere" she has around her neck - plus the long strands of diamonds draping from her shoulders.... [sigh]

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  2. I lean left politically but I must say what a tragedy to brak up something so stunningly beautiful as that tiara!

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