Lot 1803
ROMANOV INTEREST: GRAND DUCHESS OLGA ALEXANDROVNA (1882-1960)
FLORAL STUDIES
Signed `Olga`, watercolour
36 x 49cm.
* The artist was the sister of Tsar Nicholas II. After a hapless marriage to Duke Peter Alexandrovich of Oldenburg (from 1901-1916), Olga wed a cavalry officer, Nikolai Kulikovsky. After the Revolution, Olga and her husband fled to Denmark and eventually to Canada in 1948. She and her husband settled in Ontario and the couple lived a simple life, far removed from the lavish comforts of the Romanov court. After her husband's death in 1958, Olga lived in a flat above a shop in Toronto. Upon her death in 1960, her material possessions were assessed at just
350. See lot 1863.
Provenance: A gift from the artist to her friend Ella Gladstone Murray, wife of William Gladstone Murray, assistant controller of the BBC and then chief of Canadian Broadcasting; thence by descent.
