ROMANOV FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS: HAND COLORIZED BY GRAND DUCHESSES
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!
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.
It was long assumed that the four grand duchesses, OTMA – as they referred to themselves, always wore identical outfits, however when we look at the hand colorized photos we realize that the outfits were similar in style but were in different pastel colors, which all appear white or off white in black and white photographs.
I like very few digitally colorized photographs of the Romanov family a lot if which circulate on the internet, but the hand colorized ones made by the grand duchesses themselves are very precious! So without further ado, please keep scrolling and enjoy! (Please click on each photo to enlarge)
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