GRAND DUCHESS MARIE PAVLOVNA AND MAINAU

Appropriately enough, the exhibition on Marie Pavlovna has been put together with the help of her son, Count Lennart Bernadotte, and is being held on the island of Mainau on Lake Constance, Marie’s home for most of the last few years of her life. She was lucky that Count Lennart was so generous with his hospitality. At one point in the exhibition, there is a collage of photos that includes a picture of Lennart’s nanny “Nenne”, with a caption claiming that she was the only person he loved at the time. He had, of course, been left in Sweden by his mother in 1913, and was being cared for by Nenne and his rather awesome grandmother Queen Victoria of Sweden (originally a Princess of Baden). Marie was also very lucky that Count Lennart had such a grand and beautiful home. It came to him by inheritance through the Baden family, and was left to him by the Queen, who had been willed it by her father, Grand Duke Frederick II.

And Count Lennart still lives there now, at the age of 90, with his second wife, the Countess Sonja [Editors note: Lennart Bernadotte died in 2004, five years after Sue first wrote this article]. They have made Mainau a commercial success by staging regular exhibitions in the castle, holding corporate functions, and opening the gardens to the public. And it is really the gardens that are the selling point. When Grand Duke Frederick of Baden first acquired the island as his summer residence, he indulged his passion for gardening by installing lots of rare plants. And that is the tradition that continues today - orchids, tulips, rhododendrons, palm trees and a magnificent Italian Rose Garden. Wonderful views over the Lake too, and a large butterfly house. I found it all very peaceful and serene, and could have spent a relaxing day just wandering around the grounds if I hadn’t got an exhibition to see.

But I had, and it was fascinating. There was nothing clever about the presentation - it was just Marie’s life story from beginning to end. It really didn’t need to be anything else (and as it was all in German, thank goodness it wasn’t). The clever things were the exhibits themselves - things that had survived the revolution, her flight from Russia and her divorce - and that were all in immaculate condition.

We started in a corridor and in Marie’s childhood with a selection of Xmas and Easter cards from family members. One card, hand-painted, was signed “OA” in a corner, which we assumed had been painted, and probably sent by Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna. There were a selection of children’s books such as “How to be a Lady” and a “Girl’s Own” annual. And some baby clothes which were used by Count Lennart, as well as Marie. The presence of a chamber pot made us laugh. This had apparently been passed (excuse the pun) from Grand Duke Serge, to Marie and then Lennart. Quite the most amazing item in this section of the exhibition, if not the whole exhibition itself, was an original telegram, sent from Tsarskoye Selo by the Dowager Empress to Marie in Moscow, on the assassination of Grand Duke Serge. It reads “Think so much of you and dear Dimitry in your terrible loss of beloved Uncle Serge. God bless you both. Loving Kisses, Gr Aunt Minny”.

Just as Marie did, we moved rapidly towards her wedding. She wrote to her fiancé frequently and we were privileged to see some of these letters, all written in English. Considering their later divorce, they were very affectionate and very chatty. Most started “My own Dear Willy” and continued with such phrases as “I kiss you over and over again”, “I can not live without you, my own darling” and “I think of you every minute of the day”. They dated from July 1907 until April 1908. 

The wedding took place in 1908. And some of the items from her trousseau, that she brought from Russia, were displayed - a dinner service, monogrammed linen, and an awful lot of silverware. Plus some of the more personnel items that belonged to Marie such as some miniature Faberge eggs, a locket containing photos of her parents, and a wonderful silver ball dress. This had originally been catalogued in Count Lennart’s archives as her wedding dress. But a picture of the wedding dress was on display next to this dress, and it was not of the same style. Frankly, this dress was very ornate so the wedding dress must have been stunning, and very costly. We were also able to see wedding invites, menu’s and a selection of photos of Marie and Wilhelm’s journey from Russia to Sweden.

Marie and Wilhelm settled in Sweden in a house called Oakhill at Stenhammer near Stockholm. This was built especially for them, still exists and is currently the Italian embassy. I don’t suppose it looks anything like it did in the series of photos we were able to see of the interiors. But it was possible to imagine, as Count Lennart still has some of the furniture, although apparently he actually didn’t like it very much. The vast majority of it was of a light coloured wood with very thin legs that looked a bit fragile. Some, however, was of painted wood with embroidered upholstery which reminds me of the sort of furniture favoured by the Empress Alexandra of Russia.

Naturally, there wasn’t a great deal of the exhibition devoted to Marie and Wilhelm’s painful divorce. As I said earlier, there were photos of Lennart as a lonely child with his grandmother and his nanny. And of Marie on her return to Russia with her father, Grand Duke Paul and his second family. Also some rather stilted photos of Lennart’s reunions with his mother in Copenhagen and Wiesbaden, with Marie’s ever-present brother Dimitry.

Chronologically, of course, we came to the First World War next. Marie worked as a nurse at this time, in a period she described as the happiest of her life. But of course, because of conditions, not the most documented of her life. We were able to see a Russian newspaper picture of her, her staff and patients at the hospital in Pskov, along with the Bible she read avidly at the time.

Marie’s escape from Russia, told vividly in her memoirs, is also undocumented here, as I guess flouting a box brownie at a border guard for a snapshot was not the thing to do, at the time. But her life in Paris, running an atelier called “Kitmir”, met with many a photo opportunity including some Vogue adverts for her dresses. And two of the dresses themselves. Very twenties with drop waists and handkerchief hemlines. One layered dress consisted of a gauzy tangerine material covered with a silver embroidered mesh in a flower pattern. Another, an evening dress embroidered with silver and gold sequins.

Later, Marie moved onto Hollywood, advising society ladies on what to wear, for costumiers Bernsdorff and Goodmans. She had some shots of herself taken in typical Hollywood glamorous poses - soft focus and very flattering. And she took her own photos of stars she bumped into like the Oliviers, as they learnt their lines on set. During this period of her life, she also visited India, Budapest and Czechoslovakia - as chronicled in a series of photos shown here. She was actually a very good photographer. She also kept diaries, of which there are twenty-one in the archives at Mainau. Two or three are from Marie’s earlier life in Russia, some are from Paris and some from later in her life including America. However, Marie had a similar diary-writing style to Nicholas II, which doesn’t make inspiring reading.

One more room to go, dedicated to Marie’s life post 1941. 1941 was quite a significant year as the Swedish King, Gustav V, gave Marie a financial allowance which made life a lot less worrisome for her. Like so many other members of Royal families, Marie took up painting. We were able to see her painting set and some of her post-Impressionist type paintings. We nearly tripped over a huge travel trunk that Marie kept for the whole of her life - it had originally belonged to Grand Duke Serge and still had his monogram on the lid. She also always kept a 100 rouble Tsarist bank note, and a small amount of Russian soil for sentimental reasons.

Marie died in December 1958, and photos of her funeral show an almost empty church. We were not able to work out why this should be so (can any reader help?). Her ashes, and those of Grand Duke Dimitry’s, are in the private family crypt within the chapel on Mainau. This is not open to the public. Neither is Count Lennart’s home except for rooms used for exhibitions. The island and it’s gardens are open however, 0900-1800 in winter, and 0700-2000 in summer. They can be reached by car, bus, or boat. For further information call 0049 (0) 7531 3030. Or check the website on www.mainau.de

copyright Sue Woolmans, 1999

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