Portrait of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse by Friedrich August von Kaulbach (1850-1920).
Dated, November 1903.
Pastel on cardboard. Height: 46 cm. Width: 32 cm.
The pastel portrait of Elisabeth was created shortly before her death in November 1903 during a stay of the Munich painter Friedrich August von Kaulbach in Darmstadt. He portrayed the children of the Tsarist couple (Elisabeth’s cousins) on October 30th and Elisabeth on November 6th.
He had been a guest in Darmstadt several times since 1892 to portray the princesses there and their children. “He was a well-educated person and unbelievably modest for his fame. People loved him everywhere because of his elegant, quiet manner. But he had a lot of humor, and his caricatures were extremely comical,” Ernst Ludwig described him in his memoirs.
Elisabeth’s pastel, which was created shortly before she left for Russia, was apparently only completed after her death, because the painter added a poem by Ludwig Ihland (1787-1862) to the portrait. It is called “On the death of a child” and does not originate from Ferdinand Freiligrath, whom Kaulbach erroneously stated as its author.
The poem can be translated into English as:
“You came You went with silent trace, a fleeting guest in Earth’s Land. Where from ? Where to? All we know is: from God’s hand in God’s hand”.
sources: Fürsten Kinder, Porträts von 16. bis 21 Jh. im Hause Hessen.
Posthumous portrait depicting Princess Elisabeth of Hesse in 1902.
Painted by German painter Hans Weyl (1863-1916) in 1905.
source: unknown.
On the first photograph, depicting Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna’s famous Mauve Room, we can find two photographs of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse. On the left, in 1901 by Levitsky. On the right, in 1902 by Thiele.
Alexander Palace, circa 1910.
sources: vk.com/lastromanovs & Hessian State Archives.
Divorced Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and her sister Princess Beatrice at one of their sister's family castle in Romania, 1904. Ducky was mourning her daughter Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by the Rhine.
Sorry for the poor image quality...
Source: Queen Marie's private album.
Hanging on the wall, a 1898 photograph of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with her mother, Victoria Melita. Spala. No date, probably 1900-1910.
source: romanovs100
Photograph quality improved and location and date corrected;
Livadia Palace, 1900 December. Photograph from Tsar Nicholas II’s album.
source: Ilya Grigoriev’s Flickr account.
Behind Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, we can see a photograph of her cousin, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse. Alexander Palace, 1905-1906 winter.
Thank you Ilya from vk.com/naaotma for the nice size and quality.
Behind Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, we can see a photograph of her cousin, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse. Alexander Palace, 1908.
Behind Empress Alexandra of Russia, on the right, we can see a photograph of Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with her mother. Alexander Palace, 1908.
source: Facebook/ Queen Victoria’s Granddaughters
Memorial cabinet photograph depicting Princess Elisabeth of Hesse with her father in 1902. Photograph by Paul Winter from Darmstadt, dated 1904.
According to Thomas Aufleger, this was one of Ernst Ludwig’s favourite photographs with her daughter. Thus, having this in a cabinet card format makes me extremely happy.
source: my collection
I recently acquired Princess Johanna of Hesse’s (1936-1939) mourning booklet.
It deeply touched me how in the mourning text, a paragraph mentioned Johanna’s half-aunt, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse (1895-1903), who had died more than 35 years before.
The paragraph above, marked in red, can be translated as follows:
“The month of November is a fateful month for the Grand Ducal family. With the death of little Princess Johanna, we simultaneously remember once again the death of the daughter of Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig, Elisabeth, who died on 16 November 1903 in Skierniewice in Russia under mysterious circumstances, for whom the children of Darmstadt have, as is well known, erected a monument in the Herrngarten.”
I was so lucky that a vintage postcard depicting Johanna was glued on the mourning booklet!
On the back of the booklet, a photograph of the Hessian Gran Ducal Family posing with baby Johanna in 1936. I found the caption of the photograph really heart-breaking: the whole family is marked with a cross. By 1939, three years after this photo was taken, they were all dead. 💔
source: my collection
