Alexander III., With Xenia, Olga, the Tsarevich Nikolaj, Georg, Michael and the Tsarina Marie 1886

Felix Nadar captured this photograph of Alexander III and his family. Note how Nadar uses the architecture to frame the Russian royal family with the facade of the building serving to emphasize the family's place within a rigid societal structure. Consider how the photograph's composition, especially the steps and balustrade, create a layered effect that separates and contains its subjects. The positioning of each family member seems carefully arranged, with the children placed higher and closer together and the Tsar slightly apart, yet central. The geometric ironwork of the balustrade, with its repeating patterns, adds a sense of enclosure, as if the family is both on display and confined by their status. The photo evokes a sense of the Romanovs as figures elevated but also distanced from the everyday, their roles as rulers quite literally structured into the very architecture that surrounds them. This image presents them as a tableau, staged and formal, reinforcing the idea of monarchy as a performance of power.