Mathilde Kchessinska
Mathilde Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya (31 August [O.S. 19 August] 1872–6 December 1971 (also known as Her Serene Highness Princess Romanova-Krasinskaya from 1921) was a Russian ballerina from a family of Polish origin. She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.[1]
Mathilde Kchessinska | |
|---|---|
 Mathilde Kschessinskaya costumed for the title role in La Camargo, circa 1902 | |
| Born | 31 August 1872 |
| Died | 6 December 1971 (aged 99) |
Her father Feliks Krzesiński and her brother both danced in St. Petersburg. She eventually attained the highest rank, that of prima ballerina assoluta.[2]
Kschessinskaya was also a mistress of the future Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. She had been involved with Nicholas, from 1890, when he was a grand duke and she was just seventeen. She met him with his family after her graduation performance. They stayed lovers for three years, until Nicholas married Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt—the future Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna—in 1894, shortly after the death of his father, Tsar Alexander III.[3]
Mathilde Kchessinska Media
Kschessinskaya in 1898, in costume for The Pharaoh's Daughter
Krzesińska's tomb at the Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Orthodox Cemetery, 2014
References
Other websites
- Mathilde's story on www.peoples.ru (in Russian)