Exhibition Art of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts

September 20 at 12 o’clock in the halls of the Museum of Fine Arts (Kaluga, st. Lenin, 103) opens the exhibition "Art of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna."

September 20 at 11-00 (before the opening of the exhibition), a press conference will be held with the Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Kulikovskaya-Romanova.

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna is the scarlet daughter of Emperor Alexander III, the king-peacemaker. The youngest among his children, she was born on June 14, 1882, when her father was already a reigning monarch, anointed of God (the "imperial children" were called imperial children born at the time of the reign of their fathers).

In early childhood, the artistic talents of the Grand Duchess appeared. “Even during the lessons of geography and arithmetic,” she recalled, “I was allowed to sit with a pencil in my hand, because I listened better when I painted corn or wild flowers,”

Over the years, this hobby became for Olga Alexandrovna the main business of life, her profession. This was facilitated by the fact that she was able to get a completely professional education. Her mentors were outstanding masters of Russian painting - K.V. Lemokh, V.E. Makovsky, S. Yu. Zhukovsky and S.A. Vinogradov.

The first husband of Olga Alexandrovna was Prince Peter of Oldenburg. But this marriage was neither successful nor happy. The Grand Duchess found her happiness only after meeting with Nikolai Alexandrovich Kulikovsky, an officer of the Life Guard of the cuirassier regiment. True, they did not succeed in creating a family soon. The elder brother of the Grand Duchess Emperor Nicholas II, not fully trusting the authenticity of the feelings of a young woman, suggested she wait seven years. The Grand Duchess meekly obeyed her brother’s sovereign will.

When the tragic year of 1914 and the First World War began, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, who was the chief of the 12th Hussar Akhtyrsky regiment in 1901, went to the front as a simple sister of mercy - and began to serve as part of her regiment. Only after some time, gaining the necessary experience, she headed the hospital, created and equipped at her own expense.

Her motto was the words: "To be, not to seem." Being a true Christian, she was both modest and fearless. For her courage, she was even awarded the St. George medal - the award was presented to her by the head of the 12th cavalry division, General Mannerheim, who became so famous later.

Here, at the front, the Grand Duchess found her family happiness: on November 4, 1916, she married in the hospital church with her beloved - captain Nikolai Kulikovsky, and soon a terrible disaster struck the country - a bloody revolution began, the front collapsed. And it was at this terrible time that the first-born, Tikhon, was born at the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. It was in the Crimea. Near her happy mother were her mother and sister - the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna and Grand Duchess Ksenia Alexandrovna.

After Soviet power was established in Crimea, the fate of the Romanovs who lived there, it would seem, was a foregone conclusion. But the revolutionary committees of Sevastopol and Yalta for a long time could not share among themselves the "honor" to deal with the remnants of the royal family. Meanwhile, the Crimea was occupied by the Germans, and then the White Army and the Allied forces. English King George V, the nephew of the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, sent a warship to pick up his Russian relatives.

But Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and her husband Nikolai Kulikovsky refused to leave their homeland. They moved to the Kuban, which was still free from the Bolsheviks at that time, rented a farm in the village of Novominskaya, in the small homeland of Timofei Ksenofontovich Yashchik, the Cossack chamber of Empress Maria Fedorovna. It was here, on Kuban land, that the second son of the Kulikovsky-Romanovs, Guri, was born.

Only when the Bolshevik troops approached the village of Novominskaya did the Kulikovsky-Romanov family be forced to go on their last trip to Russia - and eventually ended up abroad. First, in the vicinity of Constantinople (Istanbul), then - in Serbia. And from there she went to Denmark, where by that time the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna was living.

From that time, already in exile, the artistic talent of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was revealed to the greatest extent. Her paintings were exhibited not only in Denmark, but also in Berlin, London, Paris. The Grand Duchess was passionately engaged in porcelain painting (blanks came to her from the famous porcelain factories in Copenhagen). The proceeds from the sale of paintings, watercolors, painted porcelain dishes not only replenished the meager budget of the family, but also went to charity. The Grand Duchess also painted icons, but of course they did not go on sale, but were given as a gift.

In April 1940, Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany. The sons of the Grand Duchess, Tikhon and Guri, officers of the Danish army, were imprisoned in concentration camps. And Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna is doing everything possible at this time to help not only her sons, but also other prisoners of fascist dungeons and camps. And it was not only difficult, but also dangerous.

However, even after the liberation of Denmark by the allied forces, the Grand Duchess did not diminish. Now it was necessary to save the so-called defectors - Russian people who were trying to avoid forcibly returning to the Soviet Union, where they were awaited by hard labor or execution. The Grand Duchess hid defectors in her home, and then transported them to South America.

In the end, she herself and her family had to leave Denmark in order not to become a victim of the agents of Moscow and not to embarrass the Danish authorities. The new place of residence of the Kulikovsky-Romanovs became Canada. The Grand Duchess purchased a farm near Toronto. And again she paints and watercolors. She has new, Canadian fans. But the Danes do not forget it either - orders for artwork come from Denmark.

The Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna died on November 24, 1960 and was buried in the North York cemetery, next to her husband, who died two years earlier than her. For many years they lived in true love and just died at the same time.

The exhibition of works by the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, deployed in the halls of the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts, is a testament to not only her artistic talents. In the creations of this wonderful woman forever reflected her wonderful spiritual disposition, her love for nature, for loved ones, for the whole of God’s world. The painting of the Grand Duchess is just as modest, subtle, charming, as modest, subtle, charming was Olga Alexandrovna herself, daughter of Emperor Alexander III, sister of Emperor Nicholas II, the last Grand Duchess from the Romanov dynasty.

The main organizer of the exhibition is the Philanthropist Fund “Russian Assistance Program” in the name of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, headed by Olga Nikolaevna Kulikovskaya-Romanova, daughter-in-law of the Grand Duchess.

Exhibition "Art of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna" in the Kaluga Museum of Fine Arts

The exhibition opens on September 20 at 12 o’clock in the halls of the Museum of Fine Arts (Kaluga, 103 Lenin St.) and runs until October 19.

The museum is open from 10.00 to 18.00, on Thursday from 11.00 to 19.00.

Monday is the day off. The last Friday of the month is a sanitary day.

Address: st. Lenin, 103. Contact phone - 8 (4842) 22 61 58.