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Alexander I (1801-1825) After his accession, Emperor Alexander I remained in his apartments in the north-western block, which were redecorated by the court architect Luigi Rusca. Paul I's private rooms became part of the apartments of his widow, Dowager Empress Maria Fiodorovna, who remained the sovereign mistress of the Winter Palace. Her luxurious apartments were the starting-point for the ceremonies during which the members of the imperial family processed to the palace church or the Throne Hall. It was Maria Fiodorovna who kept up palace etiquette and initiated balls and festivities, while Alexander I's wife, Empress Yelizaveta Alexeyevna, did not seek general acknowledgement, preferring to read, take walks or practise various forms of art with a small circle of close friends. After a certain lull during Paul I's reign, court life picked up under Alexander I. Among the traditions revived was the practice going back to Empress Elizabeth's time of beginning each New Year with a grand ball and masquerade to which representatives of the nobility and merchant class were invited. No major construction work was carried out in the building, but for the creation of new living apartments Alexander invited the best architects in his capital, including Carlo Rossi and Vasily Stasov. The famous portraitist Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, who often visited the Winter Palace and the homes of the St Petersburg elite, wrote: "For Russians it is not enough to have springtime temperatures in their rooms in winter: adjoining many rooms are glazed galleries filled with the best flowers that appear with us only in May... In winter the dwellings are sumptuously lit; they fumigate them with vinegar in which they throw sprigs of mint causing a very pleasant, healthy smell to spread. All the rooms are furnished with long, broad divans and I grew so used to such seating that I was no longer satisfied with a mere armchair." Under Alexander I the prototype of the famous War Gallery of 1812 was created in the Winter Palace: a hall containing portraits of the heroes of that war was situated near the Emperor's Large Study. The plan for the creation of a unique memorial drawn up by Rossi at Alexander's request - a portrait gallery in remembrance of the victory over Napoleonic France - was only realized under Nicholas I. |
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