Catherine the Great

Overview

Catherine II (1729–1796), Empress of Russia from 9 July 1762 until her death, who took the throne after overthrowing her husband Peter III; her reign of over thirty-four years was an age of expansion and of cultural patronage (Wikipedia, «Catherine the Great», https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_the_Great). For Marie she is a figure of style and ambition rather than of politics.

Relevance to Marie

• Her coiffure. On 14 December 1875, going to the Opera: «Je m'habille, me fais une coiffure un peu Catherine II, le front tout découvert» (050.0753). On 7 January 1877, in Rome: «je me suis coiffée en poudre, et habillée à la Catherine II», and people tell her she resembles Catherine, «C'est la coiffure et le grand air que je sais prendre» (068.0463, 068.0468).
• St Petersburg, August 1876. The statue of Catherine on the Nevsky Prospect (064.0431; unveiled in 1873 per the reader footnote), the Peterhof palace «édifice jaune... souvenir de Pierre le Grand et de Catherine» (064.0475; this Catherine may be Peter's wife Catherine I, not the Great), and the triumphal arch of Catherine II painted red, with green columns and yellow ornament (064.0536).
• Self-image. After lending money to a credulous woman she compares herself to Catherine the Great (067.0382, 30 October 1876). In Paris on 18 November 1883, answering a chamberlain who shows her a samovar of Peter the Great, she produces «un portrait de Catherine donné à mes ancêtres» (102.0263).

References in Diary

• First mentioned: 1875-12-14 (050.0753). Eight tagged paragraphs, carnets 050, 064, 067, 068, 102.