The Mauve Room
Tsarskoe Selo. 1917. Color autochrome, taken by Andrei Andreyevich Zeest (Андрей Андреевич Зеест).
As seen in this catalogue released by the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Preserve:
The Lilac Cabinet (Mauve Room) was created in the 1890s according to a design by R. F. Meltzer and executed by the firm of F. F. Meltzer. The room, which formed part of the enfilade of Alexandra Feodorovna’s private apartments, received its name from the silk fabric in the lilac color favored by the empress, with which the walls were upholstered. The wall decoration was completed by a frieze depicting iris flowers. The ornamental ceiling painting was executed in 1896 by N. A. Aleksandrov in the Louis XV style.¹⁹ Many pieces of furniture incorporated into the wall composition were connected with panels painted white that clad their lower section.²⁰ In the cabinet was housed the personal library of Alexandra Feodorovna; here she also played music with Anna Vyrubova.²¹ The walls of the drawing room were decorated with numerous watercolors and photographs. Among them were a portrait of Emperor Nicholas II in hussar uniform, executed by S. F. Aleksandrovsky in 1897,²² a work by the French artist Paupion entitled The Dream of the Virgin,²³ as well as photographic portraits of members of the imperial family and their relatives. The vases placed on the half-cabinet, produced at the Royal Danish manufactory in the early twentieth century, were preserved in evacuation.²⁴ The furniture of the room has not survived; the interior itself lost its decorative finish during the years of the Second World War. Footnotes ¹⁹ V. I. Yakovlev, The Alexander Palace Museum in Detskoye Selo: The Furnishings. Publication of the United Detskoye Selo and Pavlovsk Palace-Museums, 1928, p. 342. ²⁰ Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), f. 487, op. 8, d. 6444, fol. 48v. ²¹ The piano for the Lilac Cabinet was ordered from the Becker piano factory, but its casing, made “in the style of the room,” was produced by F. F. Meltzer (RGIA, f. 487, op. 5, d. 1959, fol. 163). ²² Since 1956 it has formed part of the collection of the Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve. ²³ See note 6 on p. 361. ²⁴ Since 1956 these objects have formed part of the collection of the Pavlovsk State Museum-Reserve. See note 6 on p. 361.
