Now in color: Russian beauties of tsarist times (PHOTOS)
Archive black and white photos taken even before the 1917 Revolution are now experiencing a rebirth after an artist painted them in colors.
Artist Olga Shirnina nicknamed ‘Klimbim’ on the Russian Internet adds color all kinds of different archive photos: from Romanov family members portraits to portraits of great Russian writers and World War II heroes. In her works, these people seem to revive, become incredibly alive - and sometimes look directly into a viewer’s eyes.
Here are a few select portraits of the most beautiful women of the Russian Empire.
1. Ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya
2. Matilda Kshesinskaya
3. Ballerina Anna Pavlova and her pets
4. Anna Pavlova in the costume of Swan Lake ballet
5. Revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai
6. Singer Anastasia Vyaltseva
7. Ballerina Agrippina Vaganova
8. Countess Sofya Vyazemskaya
9. Writer and translator Elizaveta Kologrivova
10. Ballerina Tamara Karsavina
11. Actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya
12. Revolutionary, journalist and poet Larissa Reissner
13. Silent movie star Vera Kholodnaya
14. A fashionable lady from Tver Region, 1900s
15. A student of the Institute of Noble Maidens in St. Petersburg
