PHOTO: Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna poses in front of some her watercolours at Gatchina, late 19th century.

On 14th April 2024, more than 40 watercolours painted by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960), will go under the hammer at an auction in Moscow.

This is the second largest group of Grand Duchess Olga’s works in Russia, the first being the group of 180 watercolours recently gifted to the State Russian Museum in St. Petersbu.

Olga’s watercolours continue to generate interest among professional and amateur collectors, both in Russia and abroad. The demand for her works have helped drive up list prices when any of her paintings are presented at auction. This current group of watercolours is expected to break all previous records.

The auction catalogue [in Russian only] contains a total of 43 watercolors, including landscapes still life, flowers, etc. The total estimated value of this group is 30 million rubles [$325,000 USD]. Estimates of individual lots range from 500,000 [$5,400 USD] to 1.5 million [$16,200 USD] rubles.

A total of 104 items of the Grand Duchess’s legacy will be sold, including autographs of members of the Russian Imperial Family, commemorative medals, pieces of furniture, and sculptures.

This group of watercolours and other items belonged to Olga Nikolaevna Kulikovsky-Romanov (1926-2020), the third wife of Grand Duchess Olga’s eldest son, Tikhon Nicholaevich Kulikovsky (1917-1993). Upon the grand duchess’s death in 1960, the bulk of her estate was acquisitioned by Tikhon. When Tikhon died in 1993, the collection passed to his wife Olga Kulikovsky. During the 1990s, Olga Kulikovsky travelled to Russia, taking the watercolours and other items with her. She toured the country, hosting numerous exhibits of her mother-in-laws paintings to Russians for the first time.

The youngest child and daughter of Emperor Alexander III and the youngest sister of Emperor Nicholas II, Olga was a prolific painter, producing over 2,000 paintings in her lifetime. She studied painting from various Russian masters, including Vasily Makovsky. During her early years in Russia, Olga painted for pleasure, often gifting her watercolours to relatives and friends, signing the works with her first initials.

During her years in exile – in both Denmark and Canada – Olga signed her works with “Olga”. The sale of her paintings provided a source of income for her and her family during their years in exile. This photo comes from the album of her cousin Princess Victoria of Wales.

Let us hope that this current collection of 43 watercolours are purchased as a group, and added to the collection of the State Historical Museum in St. Petersburg – PG

© Paul Gilbert. 2 April 2024