| Exhibition "Paul I. The World of Family" in the hall of the Federal Archives From a dynastic point of view, the main mine that Peter the Great laid under the Russian throne was the reprisal against Tsarevich Alexei. One can, of course, consider this a heavenly punishment for sonicide, but after Peter, whoever reigned. The crown traveled to some rather unexpected heads. Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich was the first more or less correct heir in this series; Even though mommy overthrew and killed daddy, Pavel was born in the palace. It would be a stretch for Pavel to trace his family back to the Romanovs, but it was he who became the founder of the house of the Romanovs, which then reigned respectably until the revolution. And Paul was the first of the emperors to have a normal family: a wife and a brood of children. And the children had a loving grandmother, Empress Catherine: the relationship with her son was strained, but still three generations, everything was like people.
Pushkin under Nikolai Pavlovich wrote that in Russia the government is the only European. The Pavlovichs were diligently raised by both their grandmother and mother, Maria Fedorovna. She was reproached for German narrowness, pedantry, and vanity. She was disgustingly virtuous, tolerated her husband’s eccentricity, welcomed Karamzin and Zhukovsky, took care of the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens, and when widowed, she headed the charity department and until the end of her days she blackmailed her son Alexander with hints of his involvement in parricide.
Maria Fedorovna was a good painter, cut cameos, and was interested in medal making. Children were taught various sciences, music and drawing. Nicholas I loved to draw soldiers. The exhibition shows the artistic side of life of the royal family. Traces of it have been preserved in many museum collections. Exhibits were provided by 15 collections (State Archive of the Russian Federation, Pavlovsk, Gatchina, Russian Museum, Hermitage, Historical Museum, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow Kremlin Museums, Pushkin House, Archive and Museum of the Navy, Military History Museum, Historical Archive, Archive of Ancient Acts , National Library). It was not available to specialists in such a concentrated form.
The work of Maria Feodorovna: still life with flowers and insects, magnificent cameos, mostly with profiles of children, husband, Empress Catherine - is now an almost forgotten form of art. She personally made medals in honor of her husband’s coronation and victory over Napoleon. And here are the children's student works. They copy pictures of rural houses, at first childishly, then more and more confidently. Quite good drawings, donated to the Academy of Arts. The daughters make cameos. And here are the notorious soldiers of Nikolai Pavlovich. He was an excellent draftsman, he himself prepared a series of sheets for a collection of uniform samples, and drew lively caricatures. Including on government securities. On the report that the Russian steamer was five hours behind the foreign one, instead of His Majesty’s own resolution, a head was handwritten, shouting: “O stram!” Moreover, it is drawn with light, precise, flexible lines. One of the most striking exhibits is a self-portrait of Nikolai, no longer young (1843). No one dared to draw or see him like this: tired, wrinkled, preoccupied, somewhat shabby, but solid.
Student notebooks of the Grand Dukes with grades from teachers and - separately - from mothers. Toys: tiny gun and drum, dishes. Alexander's suit. Nikolai’s humorous testament, composed at the age of fifteen together with his brother Mikhail: “1. Having no means at all, having only 2 rubles and 80 sous in silver, I bequeath them to the devil... 8. Let them make a drum out of my skin for the Izmailovsky regiment... 10. I bequeath myself to be frozen, and then buried in a grave with ammonia" .
The second hall of the exhibition is entirely dedicated to the military hobbies of the male half of the family. Nikolai’s drawings of cannons and fortifications, his endless sketches of uniforms. Gau’s watercolors depicting the abode of the autocrat show that it is hung from floor to ceiling with paintings of uniform samples and battle scenes. Among the memorial items are embroidered cuffs and a collar from Konstantin’s uniform and a double-headed eagle with outstretched wings that crowned Nikolai’s helmet. The exhibition organizers, with a funny and elegant gesture, placed it at the bottom of the display case, preventing the wings from overshadowing the exhibition. It is overshadowed by deliberately fake paper bas-reliefs with Paul’s monograms, placed above the doors. A charmingly unconventional design solution: to include entrance doors in the game. Decorated with Pavlovian monograms, they are slightly ironically decorated to resemble palace decor.
The central exhibit is von Kügelgen’s painting “Emperor Paul I with his family,” which has never left the Pavlovsk Palace before. And, of course, the halls are full of portraits. Maria Fedorovna is young and in mourning for her husband; Paul in all ages and types; children are small and grown; portraits of beautiful daughters by the best masters of the era.
A special theme is related love. Tender letters from children to parents and from parents to children. Catherine boasts about her grandchildren in letters to the philosopher Grimm. A series of pairs of brides and grooms and newlyweds. Maria Fedorovna to Pavel, in Russian: “I love, my soul, you are my friend.” Alexander and Elizabeth, in French: “Dear friend, I will love you all my life” - “Dear friend, I will love you all my life.” Youth, weddings, hopes.
Not all marriages worked out. Four of the six daughters died young. Pavel lost interest in his wife, suspected her and his son of a conspiracy, and wanted to imprison them, thereby hastening his own terrible end. Alexander took the throne after the death of his father, giving the go-ahead to the conspirators. How to reconcile this with a genuine expression of family feelings? Has time tormented them or the limitlessness of autocratic power? Or did the feelings persist, making it heartbreaking to follow state necessity? God knows. Olga OVEN |
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