Russian Museum
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Annotation

Marie Alexandrovna (1824–1880; née Maximiliane Wilhelmine Auguste Sophie Marie of Hesse and by Rhine): Wife of Grand Duke Alexander Nikolayevich (from 1841), future Emperor Alexander II. Distinguished by her modest and timid nature, she preferred quiet solitude in country residences to a more active social life. She was a patroness of the Red Cross, hospitals, orphanages, and girls’ gymnasiums, donating enormous sums to charity. She took an active role in the liberation of the serfs. She paid a lot of attention to bringing up her children. The cooling toward her and the betrayal on her husband’s part, who began a long relationship with Princess Ekaterina Dolgorukaya in the mid-1860s, the constant fear for his life, and the death of her son, Nicholas Alexandrovich, the heir to the throne, in 1865, all had a negative effect on her health. Beginning in the 1870s, the empress spent autumn and winter in Crimea and Italy, but nevertheless died from tuberculosis at the age of 56.

Author's Biography

Geyn Andrei

Geyn, Andrei Dmitrievich
1834 – (?)
Painter. Free artist of portrait painting (1854).