Colorized Grand Duchess Tatiana Nilkolaevna, circa 1910

This is a colorized vintage portrait of the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna (1897 - 1918), the 2nd eldest of among 4 Daughters of Car Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra of Imperial Russia.

 

Colorized Czarina Alexandra Feodrovna, circa 1910-12

Here's my colorized Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of All Russia and considered the real power behind Czar Nicholas II who, by all accounts, was a weakling. A real aristocrat who asserted the imperious autocratic power of the monarchy over peasants, the Czarina was hated by the Russian people, both rich and poor, firstly because she had a German birth and was the granddaughter of Britain'sQueen Victoria (Christened Princess Alix of Hesse), a total outsider. She was blamed by some historians as the main cause behind the downfall of the Romanoff line, the emergence of the Bolsheviks, and their eventual demise. She was nevertheless a strong Russian Orthodox believer after being converted from the Lutheran religion, a loving wife and mother who doted on her children with a very strong focus on her son Alexei who was the jewel of the family. She is now Saint Alexandra the Passion Bearer of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Excellent biography at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Feodorovna_(Alix_of_Hesse)

The colorization required some research, not so much on the imperial dress, but the jewels. I started colorizing this last month and the crown was initially solid gold with bluish pearls. Then I stumbled on the real Imperial crown of the empress made by the court jeweler Bolin, It was nowhere as solid but a wire crown with more than 150 flawless diamonds from 0.5 - 3 carats with the center inverted heart-shaped diamond at 20+ carats. Unfortunately, the only photo of the crown was only in b&w. To give some color distinction, I used pinkish pearls against the dead whites on the diamonds. (A version of this crown in all diamonds by Faberge was an option.) Revised and composited the real crown on the image with perspective and shadowing corrections.

I could not find an online resource on the necklace which was probably one of the many jewels she brought with her to Ekaterinburg and never found. I just guessed solid gold asymmetrically studded in pearls. Removed what looks like the back of the chair behind the empress which I considered more of an eyesore than anything.

Colorized Romanoff Sisters, circa 1913-14 OTMA

Here is my colorized version of the Romanoff sisters from a group portrait taken right about the same time, later, or earlier than the complete family portrait here and here. They are, standing left to right, Grand Duchess Maria, Grand Duchess Anastasia,  & Grand Duchess Olga, and seated is the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nicholaevna. Some liberties are again at work here.  The photo hardly hints of the painting on the left background.  While I could have just cropped it out,  I didn't want to crop any part of their bodies and the balance would be off.  So I just composited and darkened the 1882 painting of a Russian artist Nicholai Bogdanov-Belsky (1868 - 1945) titled "Reading a Letter".  He was at the height of his creative career during the first 20 years of the 19th century.  No specific reason for choosing his work, other than the colors. 

The Romanoff Family circa 1913 -1914 (Alternate Pose & Colorization)

Taken with a different pose and arrangement as the first which was the more popular of the two and also preserved with better detailing than the other earlier family shots. This alternate shot with a different order does not have the flowing graceful composition of the first with poor little Alexei overwhelmed by the crowd.

I have taken more creative liberties in colorizing this. A little research done earlier tended to show that the Tzar's imperial uniforms had a two-tone color, as is most common among royal military uniforms in Europe such as the Scott's and Hussar's uniforms, usually the neck, cuffs and breast. The colorization here takes some liberties to create a more aggressive and diverse color palette than the first. This time around, I used pastels for the ladies.