The desk from the Mauve Room of the Alexander Palace is the only surviving item from Empress Alexandra Feodorovna’s favorite room at her Tsarskoe Selo residence.
The furnishings of the private rooms of Nicholas II, his wife and children were not evacuated during the Second World War. After the city was liberated from the German occupation in 1944, some of the furniture was found in the parks of Pushkin and the surrounding area.
The desk in ruined condition was discovered by Alexey Kuchumov in the Alexander Park, under the terrace of the palace. Alexei Mikhailovich Kuchumov had been head of the Alexander Palace Museum since 1938, and in the summer of 1941 he supervised the evacuation of museum items from the palace. In January 1942, Kuchumov was appointed director of the storage of museum items from Leningrad suburban palaces. Between 1944 and 1945 he was sent to Germany to search for stolen cultural valuables. A lot of parts of the found desk were missing, the item was written off the museum inventory and for a long time was kept in Kuchumov’s family. In 1999, the desk were returned to the museum.
The Mauve Room was located in the private quarters of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The furniture was designed in 1895 by the architect Roman Melzer. The furniture of the Mauve Room was made of beech wood and painted with ivory enamel paint. The furniture set included about 40 pieces in the modernized Rocaille style, upholstered in mauve silk with a woven pattern of flowers.
The Mauve Room received differing assessments from contemporaries. Lili Dehn, a friend of the Empress, wrote of the boudoir:
The furnishings of the private rooms of Nicholas II, his wife and children were not evacuated during the Second World War. After the city was liberated from the German occupation in 1944, some of the furniture was found in the parks of Pushkin and the surrounding area.
The desk in ruined condition was discovered by Alexey Kuchumov in the Alexander Park, under the terrace of the palace. Alexei Mikhailovich Kuchumov had been head of the Alexander Palace Museum since 1938, and in the summer of 1941 he supervised the evacuation of museum items from the palace. In January 1942, Kuchumov was appointed director of the storage of museum items from Leningrad suburban palaces. Between 1944 and 1945 he was sent to Germany to search for stolen cultural valuables. A lot of parts of the found desk were missing, the item was written off the museum inventory and for a long time was kept in Kuchumov’s family. In 1999, the desk were returned to the museum.
The Mauve Room was located in the private quarters of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The furniture was designed in 1895 by the architect Roman Melzer. The furniture of the Mauve Room was made of beech wood and painted with ivory enamel paint. The furniture set included about 40 pieces in the modernized Rocaille style, upholstered in mauve silk with a woven pattern of flowers.
The Mauve Room received differing assessments from contemporaries. Lili Dehn, a friend of the Empress, wrote of the boudoir:
