[HIATUS] this is my blog dedicated to the romanov family. you will see various history subjects covered but the blog will mainly be about the romanov's family life.

I found that my first list of crazy dictators lacked several dictators that were also insane - yes, sadly there have been so many that we can produce multiple lists of them. Here, I put these 10 dictators. Feel free to add any other dictators you feel deserve a mention in the comments.

Valentine's Day is a great opportunity to teach children about God's love. Learn how one catechist does this in her second-grade classroom.

Catherine, William and the children can look forward to a peaceful period of rest and recovery. The storm of publicity has passed and they will now take time as a family to concentrate on Catherine's recuperation.

Alfonso XIII - Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena - King of Spain, 1927. Queen Victoria Eugenie, née Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena of Battenburg, 1926. De László, that incredibly prolific Hugarian, painted nearly all the crowned heads of Europe in his day. And the Spanish Royal Family certainly got more "coverage" than most. He painted King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenie on several occasions, as well as the King's mother and the couple's six children. Though this royal "family unit" was often an unhappy and even tragic one - read much of their story here, in a previous post about the Queen - they are all glamorous and self-assured in these portraits, their troubles varnished over, invisible beneath de László's glorious brushwork. Queen Victoria Eugenie, 1910. Alfonso XIII, 1910. Queen Victoria Eugenie, 1912. Dowager Queen María Cristina, née Maria Christina Henriette Desideria Felicitas Raineria of Austria, mother of the King, 1910. Queen Victoria Eugenie, 1920. Alfonso XIII, 1927. Queen Victoria Eugenie, 1927. Queen Victoria Eugenie, 1927. (Sketch for the above portrait.) Alfonso, Príncipe de Asturias - Don Alfonso Pío Cristino Eduardo Francisco Guillermo Carlos Enrique Eugenio Fernando Antonio Venancio de Borbón y Battenberg - at twenty, 1927. Alfonso, Príncipe de Asturias, 1927. Infante Jaime, Duque de Segovia, later duc d'Anjou - Don Jaime Leopoldo Isabelino Enrique Alejandro Alberto Alfonso Víctor Acacio Pedro Pablo María de Borbón y Battenberg - at nineteen, 1927. Infanta Beatriz - Doña Beatriz Isabel Federica Alfonsa Eugénie Cristina Maria Teresia Bienvenida Ladislàa de Borbón y Battenberg - later Principessa di Civitella-Cesi, at eighteen, 1927. Another portrait of Infanta Beatriz, 1927. Infanta María Cristina - Doña María Cristina Teresa Alejandra María de Guadalupe María de la Concepción Ildefonsa Victoria Eugenia de Borbón y Battenberg - later Contessa Marone, at sixteen, 1927. Infante Juan, Conde de Barcelona - Don Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg - at fourteen, 1927. Infante Gonzalo - Don Gonzalo Manuel María Bernardo Narciso Alfonso Mauricio de Borbón y Battenberg - at thirteen, 1927. *** I spend a ridiculous amount of time gathering and prepping images for this blog. Early on, I wasn't quite so fastidious. But I quickly became more and more obsessive about the size and quality of the images; I am a visual artist after all. So I hunt and hunt, comparing the different versions of the same painting or photograph that are to be found - uncovered; it's often real detective work! - to try and get the fullest image - so many one finds are cropped - in the largest size and the best quality. And then I spend a lot of time with any necessary Photoshopping, sizing the images and cleaning them up, adjusting the color and sharpness, trying to get the very best version I can; I know how often my own paintings have been badly reproduced so, honestly, I feel a lot of responsibility to the artists whose work I'm presenting. I see a lot of odd things out there on the internet; the various and varied filters of reproduction often do crazy things to a work of art. I thought the portrait of Infante Jaime was a particularly perverse example of this. I was lucky to find the two following images - fairly large, clear, and detailed - and then realized that they were actually the same portrait. I've examined them very, very closely, and they are the same painting; there's no way that anyone could have copied every brushstroke so exactly. And it's also clear to me that the first one is a color reproduction, not a black and white photograph of the painting tinted with color. So how is it even possible that these two are so different - and where did the red go? If I hadn't seen the second image, I'd have thought the uniform jacket was grey. The obvious defect in the second image was that the background had been so darkened that all the detail there was lost; the cast shadow behind the figure is indiscernible and the signature almost so. Neither version was really acceptable, so I melded the two images together. I hope this is something much more like what the great de László produced; for accuracy's sake, and because it's a wonderful painting. THIS PLUS THIS EQUALS THIS

Sophie, 57, was seen placing her hand on the Princess Royal's back in a supportive gesture after the coffin made the journey from Balmoral to the Scottish city.

DIY projects, vintage style home decor, free antique graphics, painted furniture, and a link party.

The comtesse d'Artois, born Maria Teresa of Savoy (31 January 1756, Turin – 2 June 1805, Graz), who I wrote about recently, giving ...

Leer de kunst van binnen fotografie met onze professionele tips... zeg maar dag tegen wazige foto's.

I'm completely wearing out the phrase, "Here's another wonderful artist that I'd never heard of before!"; I've lost track of just how many times I've deployed that sentiment here. But I just keep stumbling over them! And I do find it rather alarming to be so frequently confronted with the realization that, in the writing of art history, our terrifically learned historians have, in their wisdom, selected only a very few "Greats" for our admiration, while sifting out all the rest - some very good artists, indeed - leaving them to sink into obscurity, invisibility. Certainly Esquivel - today's little "resurrection" - is no Rembrandt or Michelangelo. His skill is limited. He's no revolutionary, no genius. But why does he need to be? His work is charming, these children are charming. C'est suffisant pour moi! Infanta María Luisa Teresa de Borbón, duquesa de Sessa, 1834. Retrato de niños jugando con un carnero, 1843. La niña Concepción Solá Garrido con su perrito, 1847. Retrato de niño con perro y paloma, 1847. Retrato de niña tocando el tambor, 1837. Retrato de niña con aro de cascabeles, 1846. Retrato de niña, 1844. Autorretrato junto a sus hijos Carlos y Vicente, 1843. Retrato de niña con perro, 1831. Infanta María Luisa Teresa de Borbón, 1832. (I believe this is a miniature, and the same sitter as in the first image.) Retrato del hijo primogénito de don Antonio Hompanera de Cos, 1852. Retrato de niña vestida de pasiega, 1843. Rafaela Flores Calderón, circa 1842. Manuel Flores Calderón, circa 1842. Retrato de niña desconocida, 1822. (Miniature; the artist was sixteen when he painted this.) Retrato de la hija del pintor, 1841. Isabel de Tejada y de la Pezuela, 1851. Retrato de dos niñas, 1848. José Villaamil, circa 1830s-40s. Retrato de niña, 1838. Retrato de niña con un jilguero, circa 1845. (Miniature.) Retrato de niños en un jardín, circa 1839. Carlos Pomar Margrand, 1851. Retrato de niña con rosas, 1834. Los Infantes Raimundo Roberto y Fernando José, los hijos de Su Alteza Real la Infanta Josefa Fernanda de Borbón, 1855. *** Antonio María Esquivel y Suárez de Urbina (8 March 1806, Seville - 9 April 1857, Madrid), Spanish painter who specialized in portraits. The son of a cavalry officer who had been killed at the Battle of Bailén in 1808, he began his studies at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría in Seville, where he was deeply influenced by the work of Murillo. In 1831 at the age twenty-five, already married and in need of better opportunities, he moved to Madrid and enrolled at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. He became much involved in the intellectual life of Madrid and went on to be a driving force in the founding of the Liceo Artístico y Literario in 1837, where he gave classes in anatomy; he would later teach the same subject at the Academia de San Fernando. In 1839, suffering from an illness that left him nearly blind, he returned home to Seville. Deeply depressed, he tried to commit suicide by jumping into the Guadalquivir River. Afterwards, his friends and colleagues at the Liceo took up a collection that enabled him to receive treatment from a famous ophthalmologist in Paris; by the end of the following year he had recovered his vision. After his recovery and his return to Madrid, he would go on to receive the "Commander's Cross" of the Order of Isabella the Catholic and, in 1843, he was named Court painter. He died at the age of fifty-one. His sons Carlos and Vicente both went on to have careers as artists; their father included them in his self-portrait, seen above.

Left to right: Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, Tsar Nicholas II (Nicky), Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix), Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse (Ernie), Prince Nicholas of Greece (Greek Nicky), Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Hesse (Ducky), Grand Dukes Andrei and Boris Vladimirovich. As I mentioned in a previous post, there was little love lost between the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia and her first cousin* and soon-to-be-former sister-in-law, Grand Duchess Victoria Melita of Hesse. But in the early days of their respective marriages, before the ill-considered union of "Ducky" and the Empress' beloved brother Ernie ended in all-but-inevitable divorce, the Russian couple and Hessian couple spent some happy days together in the Empress' "old home", Darmstadt, together with their children and other members of the extended family. Wolfsgarten. They were all young adults in October and November of 1899 - Andrei was just 20, Boris 21, Ducky and Kirill 23, Alix and Greek Nicky were 27, Ernie 30, with Nicky the oldest at 31 - and most were living lives that were heavy with responsibility and rigid protocol. But staying at Schloss Wolfsgarten, the Grand Ducal country estate north of Darmstadt, the differences between the two young women which would soon harden into enmity, and the pressures of public life that the group often struggled with, were forgotten in unseasonably sunny and warm, lighthearted days spent with their children and surrounded by family. There are photographs propped up in front of Nicky; it would be interesting to know of whom they are. Update, May 2024: It turns out that the photograph on the right is actually of Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig taken circa 1893. I have no idea why they're posing with it. Kirill, Nicky, Greek Nicky. Ernie and Nicky. (That's probably Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna, the Tsar's second daughter, in the foreground.) Ernie and Greek Nicky. Same as above. Nicky and Greek Nicky. Nicky, Greek Nicky, Boris. Ducky. Alix. (Quite a different - rather appalling, actually - image of the famously stiff and unsmiling Empress Alexandra.) Boris. Boris, Ernie, Andrei, on top Greek Nicky and Kirill. Alix taking a photograph of Nicky, Ernie, and Greek Nicky. (The man in the middle of the image is unknown.) Greek Nicky with Tatiana. Ernie with Tatiana. Nicky and Alix's two eldest daughters, Grand Duchesses Tatiana and Olga. Tatiana and Greek Nicky. Ernie and Nicky with their daughters, Princess Elisabeth - who would die at the age of eight - and Grand Duchess Olga. Boris. At left, Nicky and Greek Nicky. Ducky and Kirill. (Her future second husband.) This decorative - dry - well seemed to inspire a lot of silliness. Greek Nicky, Boris, Kirill. Princess Elisabeth is in the background. *** Alexandra and Ernst Ludwig (by their mother) and Victoria Melita (by her father) were first cousins. (And grandchildren of Queen Victoria.) Victoria Melita (by her mother), Nicholas II (by his father), and the three Vladimir bothers (by their father), were all first cousins. Nicholas II (by his mother) and Nicholas of Greece (by his father) were first cousins; they were also second cousins via the former's father and the latter's mother, born a Russian Grand Duchess. Nicholas of Greece (by his mother) was second cousins with the Vladimir brothers (by their father). Got all that? Of course, famously, Victoria Melita divorced one first cousin, Ernst Ludwig, and married another, Kirill. Though unions between first cousins weren't always so frowned upon at the time - as they certainly are today - the Orthodox church did not permit such marriages. This is one of many factors that have always troubled Russian monarchists in respect to the current pretender to the Imperial throne, the granddaughter of Kirill and Victoria Melita.

Former British Soldier Exposes King Charles

Including the Queen's grandchildren and great-grandchildren

A Florida teacher told her fourth grade student to pledge allegiance to the flag…or else. Hernando County school teacher Anne Daigle-McDonald has been suspended without pay after grabbing a s…

In October of 1793, when on trial for her life, Marie-Antoinette was accused by the revolutionary tribunal of sexually abusing her eight-yea...

What can you put on that will guarantee to make you beautiful?