The art collection of the State Pushkin Museum includes a portrait of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

Princess Charlotte, the daughter of King Frederick William III of Prussia, was born on the 1st of July, 1798. Nineteen years later, on the same day, the 1st of July, 1817, she became the wife of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, who would later become Emperor Nicholas I of Russia. Before the wedding, she converted to Orthodox Christianity and adopted the name Alexandra Feodorovna. Upon Nicholas’ accession to the Russian throne, Alexandra became Empress. Her coronation took place on August 22, 1826 at the Assumption Cathedral in the Moscow Kremlin.

In 1821, in Berlin, Nicholas Pavlovich and Alexandra Feodorovna participated in a fashionable masquerade — tableaux vivants based on the plot of the popular poem by the English romantic poet Thomas Moore, “Lalla Rookh”. The grand duke played Prince Feramors and the grand duchess played the role of the oriental princess Lalla Rookh. Following the performance, Alexandra Feodorovna was also called Lalla Rookh, which figuratively means “beloved”. For instance, Zhukovsky, who was teaching Alexandra Feodorovna Russian, dedicated the poem “Lalla Rookh” to her in 1821. Pushkin, describing the appearance of Alexandra Feodorovna as “a lily with wings”, referred to the future empress as Lalla Rookh in one of the editions of “Eugene Onegin”. However, the stanza with the ball scene from the 8th chapter was not included in the final version of the novel,