This fragment of a larger collage shows six official shoulder-length portraits of members of the House of Romanov. It is an oleograph made by an unknown artist in early 1900s.

Top row from left to right:
• Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928), mother of Nicholas II and widow of Alexander III;
• Emperor Nicholas II (1868-1918), last Emperor of Russia;
• Empress Consort Alexandra Feodorovna (1872-1918), spouse of Nicholas II.

Bottom row from left to right:
• Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich (1847-1909), younger brother of Emperor Alexander III;
• Emperor Alexander III (1845-1894), the owner of Massandra Palace, shown wearing a dress coat with medals and aiguillettes;
• Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich (1850-1908), younger brother of Emperor Alexander III.

The right side of the oleograph is adorned with a stylized cane branch. Each portrait bears a name written in French below.

Nicholas II and his family spent the spring of 1912 and the end of summer and fall of 1913 in Crimea. They mostly stayed in the Livadia palace, spending their time resting, taking strolls or bathing in the sea. Crimea was a sort of solace for the Imperial family, a way of escaping endless concerns of the state. It was a place for them to hide from public attention and devote some time to each other.

Oleography (from Latin ‘oleum’ – oil, and Ancient Greek ‘γράφω’ – write, draw), also known as chromolithography, is the production of polygraph prints in oil colors. Oleography was the most popular method of color reproduction in the second half of the 19th century. It usually involved around 15-20 separate stones for each color to be used that were printed in register over one another. Then, to better resemble an oil painting, an oleograph was routinely embossed and varnished, thus imitating the texture of a canvas covered with paint strokes. Oleographs were popular with the bourgeoisie and rich peasants.

Curiously, this oleograph uses the technique of collage that wasn’t popular in the early 1900s. It was not until 1912 when the futurists who popularized collages in Europe. Here we can see classical shoulder-length portraits joined up to fit in a single plate which gives a sensation of a family joining together to sit for the artist.