A sheet comprising sketches of many of the orders and their colourful ribbons worn at the events surrounding the wedding of Maria Alexandrovna and Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. The sketches capture the grandeur and colours of the Russian imperial court at a high point of Alexander II’s reign, and would have been used by Chevalier as an aide-memoire for the painting of the marriage (RCIN 404476). The wide variety of orders from Russia and elsewhere are recorded in detail, with careful annotations regarding the colours and patterns in each design.

The orders depicted (from top left to bottom right) are the Hohenzollern House Order; the collar and eagle of Knights; the stars of the Orders of St Anne and St Stanislaus; the star and badge of the Order of Virtuti Militari; the stars and badges of the Orders of St Andrew the First Called, St Catherine the Martyr, the White Eagle and St Vladimir; the stars of St Alexander Nevskii and St George; the badge of St Stanislaus, and the badges and ribbons of St Alexander Nevskii, St George and St Anne.

Text adapted from Russia, Royalty & the Romanovs, London, 2018