Portrait photo of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna

The original photo is in excellent collector's condition. A gelatin print. Portrait cabinet. The photo shows Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna. Guarantee of authenticity. Provenance is from the archive of Colonel L-Guard. V. Svechin's Preobrazhensky Regiment (1871-1944).

Maria Pavlovna (April 6 [18], 1890, Saint Petersburg — December 13, 1958, Constance) was a Grand Duchess, the daughter of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich and Princess Alexandra Georgievna of Greece. Granddaughter of Alexander II on her father's side and great-great-granddaughter of Nicholas I on her mother's side (through her grandmother, Queen Olga Konstantinovna of Greece).

She was born on April 6 [18], 1890 in St. Petersburg in the palace at 68 English Embankment (the former mansion of Baron Stieglitz) and was the first child in the family of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich and Greek Princess Alexandra Georgievna. Named after the grandmother of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, whom her father adored. She was baptized into Orthodoxy in the Large Church of the Winter Palace.

In 1908, Maria Pavlovna was married to the Swedish Prince William, Duke of Södermanland (1884-1965), the second son of Gustav V. The marriage was concluded for political and dynastic reasons, the newlyweds did not have warm feelings for each other. A year later, a child was born in the marriage — a son, Lennart (1909-2004). In 1913, she left her husband and returned to Russia, leaving her son in Sweden. The marriage was officially dissolved a year later. Maria Pavlovna talked about Wilhelm's homosexuality, but there is no evidence of this, and soon after the divorce, he entered into a close relationship with another woman.

During the First World War, Maria graduated from nursing courses and worked at the front. Maria had always been close to her younger brother Dmitry, and after Rasputin's murder, she, among other relatives of the tsar, asked for a commutation of the Grand Duke's punishment.

On September 6 (19), 1917, she married Sergei Mikhailovich Putyatin, the son of courtier Mikhail Putyatin. When the October Revolution broke out, Maria was already pregnant and could not leave. On June 15, 1918, in Pavlovsk, she gave birth to her son Roman and, leaving the child in the care of her mother-in-law, went with her husband to Romania (where the king sheltered her), and then to Paris. On July 29, 1919, her son died of an intestinal disease in Bucharest.

In exile, she spent some time making embroidery and lace, ran a cooperative for their production, worked as a photographer for fashion magazines; lived in Germany, Sweden, Spain. Divorced her husband (04/29/1923).

Until the death of her brother Dmitry, she maintained a warm relationship with him. She lived in the USA for about 12 years, where she wrote a book of memoirs, which was a great success, then left for Argentina. After World War II, she returned to Europe and lived with her son in the estate he inherited from his father in 1922 on the island of Mainau in Lake Constance.

Maria Pavlovna died on December 13, 1958 in Konstanz (West Germany) from pneumonia. She was buried on the island of Mainau next to her brother.