The Marriage of Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, 26th November 1894

Princess Alix of Hesse (1872-1918) was Queen Victoria’s granddaughter. She married Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, on 26 November 1894 in the Imperial Chapel of the Winter Palace. Here the bridegroom and bride are holding lighted candles and the Metropolitan Archbishop of St Petersburg makes the sign of the cross before them with their engagement rings. The Tsar is in Hussar uniform and the bride wears a diamond crown and the Imperial gold-embroidered mantle lined with ermine. The orange blossom was brought from the Imperial conservatory in Warsaw. Tuxen attended the ceremony and recorded how he was intoxicated by the beauty of the scene, by the singing, the richness of the colours, the light, the golden fabrics and the loveliness of the bride.

It is interesting to compare this painting with Nicolas Chevalier’s painting of the marriage of the Tsar’s aunt in the same chapel 20 years earlier (RCIN 404476[1]).