The statue of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna was created by the famous sculptor Christian Daniel Rauch.
In 1815, Russian Emperor Alexander I was looking for a bride for his seventeen-year-old brother, Tsarevich and Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich. Seeking to strengthen the relationship with Prussia and cherishing his own tender feelings toward Queen Louise, the wife of King Frederick William III, Alexander I chose their daughter — Princess Friederike Luise Charlotte Wilhelmine. It is likely that in 1816, King William III commissioned Christian Daniel Rauch to paint the bride who did not yet know that she would soon become Russian Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.
A portrait of the bride was traditionally presented to the groom, especially one of royal descent, during the time when there was no photography, as the groom was to know and remember what the bride looked like. This painting was accompanied by the portrait of Grand Duke Nicholas Pavlovich, future Emperor Nicholas I, which was also copied many times.
As a classicist, Christian Daniel Rauch sought to
create portraits in the style of classical sculptors. It was his ability to portray
an individual using idealized forms that earned him recognition. The portrait
of the future Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, created in Berlin, was so well-executed
and so popular among the royal customers that the sculptor copied it for the
Russian court many times. The sculptor created a breast-length and a shoulder-length
portrait, changed the folds of the toga around the shoulders and removed it
altogether, and copied the portrait in bronze, cast iron, and marble. All the versions
were characterized by the same classicist three-quarter turn to the left and bun
hairstyle with tightly twisted curls on the temples. However, the bronze and cast-iron
versions had not two but three curls and were decorated with a small tiara
stylized as a kokoshnik, also known in two variations — a pointed and a semicircular
one. This small touch indicates that the sculptor strove to emphasize the model’s
status — Alexandra Feodorovna has already become Empress — and that the Nizhny
Tagil portrait was made closer to the end of the 1820s.
