The Lilac (Mauve) Study

Alexandra loved all tints if the colour mauve, that is why the Lilac or Mauve Study (boudoir) became her favourite room after the redecoration of the Alexander Palace to Robert Melzer’s designs in the 1890s. The walls were lined with mauve-coloured silk and topped by a frieze of painted irises intertwined with ribbons in the Art Nouveau style. Furniture of mauve and white divided the room into a few cosy sitting areas. On the tables, bookcases, fireplace, and shelves of a built-in corner sofa were innumerable pictures and items of glass and porcelain, as well as photo and drawing albums, sheet music folders, baskets of fine needlework materials, board games. Fond of playing music and reading, the Empress had more than a thousand volumes in her library – mostly philosophical, religious and mystical – placed in the Lilac Study and Maple Drawing-Room. 

In December 1895 the newlywed Nicholas and Alexandra had their first New Year’s Day party in the Lilac Study. Their whole family would gather there every evening for traditional English 5 o’clock tea. In this room General Lavr Kornilov, Commander-in-Chief of the Petrograd Military District, arrested the Romanovs on March 8, 1917.  Of this room’s finish and furnishings nothing is left.