She uses a tucker or partial bertha to conceal her decolletage and she appears to be wearing a vest, although it is hard to tell without seeing the full gown. She wears a cross of Saint Andrew on her vest, the star with a X crucifix in it. Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Russia. She also wears an order sash.*** Maria Feodorovna was not a great beauty, but was tall, fair, fresh, extremely shortsighted and inclined to be stout. Her carriage was indisputably regal, and she loved the pomp and ceremony associated with court life. She also had a taste for splendor and a passionate interest in small court intrigues. Particularly tenacious of her rank, she was prepared to spend the whole day from morning until night in full dress without respite or fatigue, implacably imposing the same burden on all her entourage, and was ruled by etiquette in the most intimate details of her domestic life. She loved order and regularity. Unlike the Romanovs, she was frugal, a rare virtue in a princess of that time, but she came from a large family that for a long time was only a minor branch of the house of Wurttemberg. Her even temper and her patience were instrumental in knowing how to deal with a difficult husband and make a success of her marriage. Her parsimony was such that as a new Grand Duchess, she did not hesitate to take over the clothes of her husband's first wife and to dispute with the lady's maids the very slippers of the defunct Natalia. Maria cultivated the arts with great enthusiasm, not disdaining even needlework. She was skilled in watercolor, she also knew engraving, designed cameos, and created objects of ivory and amber, which she often presented as gifts. She was a gifted musician, and was a renowned specialist in horticulture, with a lifelong passion for flowers and plants. At Pavlovsk she gathered a literary circle in imitation of that of Etupes, and she organized theatricals for her husband, who delighted in that amusement. In addition to all this, she found time to devote energies to the great charities and educational institutions. She established the institute for the blind in Saint Petersburg, and supported the career of the blind musician Charlotta Seuerling, whose mother she saved from ruin. Serious and purposeful, she prided herself in being cleverer than her mother-in-law, never losing an opportunity of contrasting her own impeccable virtue with her mother in law's failings. She was equally watchful to attack Catherine's favorites Potemkin and Mamonov. Clever, talented, purposeful and energetic, Maria Feodorovna would make a nearly perfect Imperial wife, and Paul for many years would be a model husband deeply in love with the woman he married.

Closeup of the face and gorgeous headdress. She uses a bow to emphasize her decolletage.*** The close relationship between Paul and Catherine Nelidova, one of Maria Feodorovna's ladies-in-waiting, was cause of the first crack in their marriage. Paul's liaison, a deeply intense but, according to him, only platonic attachment to Nelidova, one of Maria's ladies-in-waiting, was particularly painful for Maria Feodorovna, as the other woman had been her friend. Her relations with Nelidova became very bitter for several years. Later, however, she began to accept Paul's word that it was only a friendship, and eventually Maria not only reconciled with the idea, but joined forces with Nelidova in an attempt to moderate Paul's increasingly neurotic temperament. After twenty years in the shadows, the death of Catherine II in 1796 allowed Maria Feodorovna to have a prominent role as Empress consort. During Catherine's lifetime, Maria had no chance of interfering in affairs of state, as Paul himself was excluded, but after her husband's accession to the throne, she took to politics, at first timidly, but increasingly resolutely afterwards. Her influence over her husband was great, and in general beneficial. Even so, it is possible that she abused it in order to help her friends or hurt her enemies. Maria had exceptional taste. The palaces of Gatchina, Tsarskoe Selo, the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and The Hermitage were decorated and furnished under her personal guidance. She loved all the arts and supported them generously. Her most important heritage to Russia, however, was the establishment of the first schools for women, as well as numerous charitable organizations in the empire. These institutions existed until the Russian Revolution of 1917. As Empress, she helped as much as possible her numerous poor relations, some of which, for example her brother, Alexander of Wurttemberg (1771-1833), were invited to Russia. Although Paul and his wife were not as close as they once had been, there remained a good deal of warmth between them. Their relationship suffered further in the last years of Paul's life. After Maria gave birth to her tenth and last child in 1798, Paul became infatuated with nineteen-year-old Anna Lopukhina, and this time Paul assured his wife that his behavior was irreproachable and that the relationship was of a paternal nature. Paul was Emperor for exactly four years, four months and four days. He was murdered on 12 March 1801.