Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia - Legacy

Legacy

Olga began drawing and painting at a young age. She told her official biographer Ian Vorres:

Even during my geography and arithmetic lessons, I was allowed to sit with a pencil in my hand. I could listen much better when I was drawing corn or wild flowers.

She painted throughout her life, on paper, canvas and ceramic, and her output is estimated at over 2,000 pieces. Her usual medium was scenery and landscape, but she also painted portraits and still lifes. Vorres wrote,

Her paintings, vivid and sensitive, are immersed in the subdued light of her beloved Russia. Besides her numerous landscapes and flower pictures that reveal her inherent love for nature, she often also dwells on scenes from simple daily life ... executed with a sensitive eye for composition, expression and detail. Her work exudes peace, serenity and a spirit of love that mirror her own character, in total contrast to the suffering she experienced through most of her life.

Her daughter-in-law wrote,

Being a deeply religious person, the Grand Duchess perceived the beauty of nature as being divinely inspired creation. Prayer and attending church provided her with the strength not only to overcome the new difficulties befallen her, but also to continue with her drawing. These feelings of gratefulness to God pervaded not only the icons created by the Grand Duchess, but also her portraits and still life paintings.

Her paintings were a profitable source of income. According to her daughter-in-law, Olga preferred to exhibit in Denmark to avoid the commercialism of the North American market. The Russian Relief Programme, which was founded by Tikhon and his third wife Olga in honour of the Grand Duchess, exhibited a selection of her work at the residence of the Russian ambassador in Washington in 2001, in Moscow in 2002, in Ekaterinburg in 2004, in Saint Petersburg and Moscow in 2005, in Tyumen and Surgut in 2006, and at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and Saint Michael's Castle in Saint Petersburg in 2007. Pieces by Olga are included in the collections of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, King Harald of Norway, and private collections in North America and Europe. Ballerup Museum in Pederstrup, Denmark, has around 100 of her works.