As most of you already know, the Romanov family were avid photographers, and luckily for us – the Romanov history enthusiasts- they took hundreds and even thousands of photographs of their public as well private daily lives. Not only did the imperial family take photographs, they also had a dark room where they developed them – so they were real pros even at the dawn of photography!
Within a year of these rare pictures of the imperial Romanov family, the Russian Revolution took place. The Tsar was forced to abdicate and the family was exiled. In Yekaterinburg on July 17, 1918, they were shot on Lenin's orders. Many of these pictures were taken by Nicholas II of Russia, an insatiable photographer who passed down his love for photography to his third daughter Maria; she was responsible for coloring most of the pictures.
The two youngest grand duchesses, Maria and Anastasia (“The Little Pair”) especially loved to hand colorize their photographs. A lot of these hand colorized photos have survived in the archives and are especially useful when one is trying to figure out the colors of the Romanov family members’ outfits, etc.
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Tsar Nicholas II with daughters (left to right) Maria, Anastasia, Olga and Tatiana Romanov. |
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Olga, Tatiana, Alexei, an unidentified man and Tsar Nicholas II in Rospha, Russia. |
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An unidentified woman and Olga Romanov (at right). |
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Anastasia (at left) and Maria visit wounded WWI soldiers in hospital. |
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Anastasia Romanov with fake teeth. |
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Tsar Nicholas II. |
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Anastasia and Maria visit wounded soldiers in hospital during World War I. |
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An unidentified man with Tatiana Romanov. |
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Anastasia Romanov pulling a face. |
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The Tsar (at left) and family. |
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Anna Virubova, best friend and confidante of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, and Olga Romanov. Virubova was regarded as very much under the influence of Rasputin. Not permitted by the Bolsheviks to follow the tsar's family into exile, she was first jailed in St. Petersburg and eventually escaped to Finland, where she lived in a convent until her death in the 1960s. |
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Maria, Olga , Alexei, an unidentified woman and Tatiana Romanov. |
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The Tsar (second from left) and family. |
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Maria, Olga and Tatiana Romanov. |
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Olga Romanov in her bedroom. |
(Photos: Laski Diffusion/Getty Images, via
Retronaut)
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