Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia (1786-1859)

Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia ( _ru. Мария Павловна; February 16, 1786–June 23, 1859) was the third daughter of Paul I of Russia and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg.

Biography

She was born in 1786 in Saint Petersburg and raised in Pavlovsk.

As a child, she was not considered pretty: her features were disfigured as a result of a pioneering application of the smallpox vaccine. Her grandmother, Catherine II, admired her precocious talent as a pianist but declared that she'd better be born a boy. Her music instructor was Giuseppe Sarti, a composer.

Marriage and Children

On 3 August 1804, she married Carl Friedrich Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach (2 February 1783 - 8 July 1853). The couple stayed in Saint Petersburg for nine months, before departing for Weimar. There Maria was greeted with a bout of festivities, as described by Christoph Martin Wieland: "The most festive part of all the magnificence of balls, fireworks, promenades, comedies, illuminations was the widespread and genuine joy at the arrival of our new princess".

Maria and Carl had four children:
*Paul Alexander Karl Constantin Frederick August (25 September 1805 Weimar - 10 April 1806 Weimar)
*Marie Luise Alexandrine (3 February 1808 Weimar - 18 January 1877 Berlin); married Karl of Prussia
*Augusta Louisa Katherine (30 September 1811 Weimar – 7 January 1890 Berlin),; married Wilhelm I and became German Empress.
*Karl Alexander August Johann (24 June 1818 Weimar - 5 January 1901 Weimar)

After the death of the Grand Duke Carl Friedrich in 1853 she retired from public life.

Her last trip to Russia was to the coronation of her nephew as Alexander II of Russia in 1855.

Patronage of Arts and Science

Maria Pavlovna was interested in arts as well as in sciences. She was a patroness of art, science and social welfare in the poor Grand-Dukedom of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. She maintained a lifelong correspondence with Vasily Zhukovsky and it was to her that Schiller dedicated one of his last poems. She attended ten courses at the University of Jena, some delivered by Alexander von Humboldt, and was instrumental in establishing the Falk Institute in Weimar.

She selected, as tutor to her son Charles Alexander, the Genevan Frédéric Soret, who became well acquainted with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

In her later years, Maria Pavlovna invited Franz Liszt to her court, restoring a measure of artistic excellence previously associated with Weimar. However, her growing deafness prevented her from enjoying the premiere of "Lohengrin" in Weimar on 28 August, 1850.

Most famous were the "Literary Evenings (Literarische Abende)" where scholars from the neighboring Jena University and others from outside the Grand-Dukedom were invited to give lectures on various topics. This circle was a focus in post-classical Weimar.

Several collections of the Jena University benefitted by her patronage, among them the Grandducal Oriental Coin Cabinet founded in 1840 by Johann Gustav Stickel, orientalist at the University.

Schiller praised her "talents in music and painting and genuine love of reading", while Goethe hailed her as one of the worthiest women of his time.

Her Traces in Jena and Weimar

She owned a small chalet close to Jena, owned formerly by the Protestant theologist of Enlightenment Griesbach, where she used to spend the summer with her children. Maria Pavlovna is buried in Weimar, in a Russian-style chapel by the side of the Goethe-Schiller Mausoleum.

Ancestry

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1= 1. Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia
2= 2. Paul I of Russia
3= 3. Sophie Dorothea of Württemburg
4= 4. Peter III of Russia
5= 5. Catherine II of Russia
6= 6. Friedrich II Eugen, Duke of Württemberg
7= 7. Friederike Dorothea of Brandenburg-Schwedt
8= 8. Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
9= 9. Anna Petrovna of Russia
10= 10. Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst
11= 11. Johanna Elisabeth, Princess of Holstein-Gottorp
12= 12. Karl Alexander, Duke of Württemberg
13= 13. Maria Augusta Anna of Thurn and Taxis
14= 14. Friedrich Wilhelm, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
15= 15. Sophie Dorothea Marie, Princess of Prussia
16= 16. Frederick IV, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
17= 17. Hedwig Sophia of Sweden
18= 18. Peter I of Russia
19= 19. Catherine I of Russia
20= 20. Johann Ludwig of Anhalt-Zerbst
21= 21. Christine Eleonore von Zeustch
22= 22. Christian August of Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of Eutin
23= 23. Albertina Frederica of Baden-Durlach
24= 24. Frederick Charles of Württemberg-Winnental
25= 25. Eleonore Juliane von Brandenburg-Ansbach
26= 26. Anselm Franz of Thurn and Taxis
27= 27. Princess Maria Ludovika von Lobkowicz
28= 28. Philipp, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt
29= 29. Johanna Charlotte of Anhalt-Dessau
30= 30. Frederick William I of Prussia
31= 31. Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

References

* Jena, Detlef, Maria Pawlowna. Großherzogin an Weimars Musenhof, Regensburg 1999.
* "Ihre Kaiserliche Hoheit". Maria Pawlowna. Zarentochter am Weimarer Hof, ed. Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Weimar, Weimar 2004.

External links

* [http://members.surfeu.fi/thaapanen/index.html Genealogy of the Romanov Imperial House]
* [http://www.peoples.ru/family/children/m_romanova/ Extensive biography on www.peoples.ru]