The Maple Drawing-Room

One of the most remarkable interiors in the Russian Art Nouveau style of the early 1900s, the Maple Drawing-Room was named so because of its maplewood furniture and mezzanine. The room was furnished by Friedrich Melzer’s firm to Robert Melzer’s designs. The room’s space was divided into several cosy sitting areas with couches, tables and whatnots. Various hues of green were in paintings, sculptures, Russian and Danish porcelains, and upholstered furniture around. In spring the room was decorated with violets, gillyflowers and lily-of-the-valleys.   

In the Maple Drawing-Room the Imperial family would have after-dinner coffee or evening tea. They all gathered there in the evening: children played while the others read or did fine needlework – idleness saw no approval in this family. Sitting on the mezzanine, the Empress liked to draw or embroider. There she welcomed Grigori Rasputin, and there Nicholas II goodbyed his family on the way to the Russian Army Headquarters in Mogilev on 22 February 1917 – two weeks before his abdication. Through the elaborately carved mezzanine Alexandra had direct access to Nicholas’s State (New) Study.

This room’s furnishings survived only in old photographs.