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Portrait Bust of Empress Maria Fyodorovna
Russia
Mark Antokolsky
C. 1887
Maria Fyodorovna (1847-1928), nee Maria-Sophia-Frederika-Dagmar, daughter of King Christian IX of Denmark and Queen Louise. In 1864 she became engaged to the heir to the Russian throne, Tsesarevich Grand Prince Nikolai Alexandrovich. He died, however, and a year later, in 1866, she married his brother, Grand Prince Alexander Alexandrovich (from 1881 Russian Emperor Alexander III). On her conversion to Russian Orthodoxy she was given the name Maria Fyodorovna.
In 1917, after the abdication of her son Nicholas II, Maria Fyodorovna went with her younger daughters Olga and Ksenia to the Crimea and later to Denmark, where she lived to the end of her life.
According to one contemporary, despite her regal appearance, Maria Fyodorovna was affectionate and polite and had an easy temper, such that all her associates adored her.
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