Grand Duchess Alexandra Nicolaevna of Russia (1825-1844), Princess of Hesse, in pale blue-bordered white dress, diamond set sapphire drop earrings and blue flowers in her curling dark hair; gold-tasselled bordered draped red curtain, pillar and sky background

Grand Duchess Alexandra Nicolaevna, fifth and youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and his wife Alexandra (see lot 199), was of all her sisters most like her mother, and even more like her grandmother, Queen Louisa of Prussia. Nicknamed 'Adini' in the family circle, she was a talented artist and singer and took lessons from the famous primadonna Henrietta Sonntag. In 1844, she married as his first wife Prince Frederick (later Landgrave Frederick William II) of Hesse. She died only eight months later during childbirth and suffering from tuberculosis.
A similar three-quarter length watercolour signed by Vladimir Hau is in the Foundation of the House of Hesse at Fasanerie Castle, Adolphseck, Fulda.