Based on
previously unpublished documents, this book traces the life in Paris of
Countess Olga von Hohenfelsen, later known as Princess Paley, the morganatic
wife of Grand Duke Paul of Russia, uncle of the last emperor, Nicholas
II. While immersing the reader in the world of
Marcel Proust (most of Princess Paley’s social contacts had fed the writer’s
imagination), the book explores the couple’s day-to-day life, highlighting
their relationships with leading suppliers such as couturiers Worth and Paquin
and the jeweller Cartier. It also provides an overview of the Parisian art
market, and studies the development of the couple’s successive residences from
Paris to St. Petersburg. For a time in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution,
the significant collection and the palace built to house it were shown to the
public as the Museum of French Art and History. Dispersed during the 1920s by
the Soviet authorities, the collection is studied as a whole here for the first
time. Published first in French in 2018, this updated English version includes
an additional chapter on Princess Natalie Paley, as many works of art and
archival documents from the family are now preserved at Hillwood Estate, Museum
& Gardens. The couple’s youngest child, Natalie Paley continued her
family’s legacy of contributing to culture and the arts well into the 20th
century while living in Paris and the United States,
where she was more than a muse to writers, designers, photographers, and
artists, whom she influenced. 

Contributions by: Megan J Martinelli