The exhibition opened in the Hermitage Theater Foyer celebrates the centenary of the 1903 Fancy Dress Ball in the Winter Palace. It shows 12 costumes of the ball’s participants and 34 photos from the 1903 album. The party given on 11 February, 1903, in the Winter Palace was followed two days later by a grandiose fancy dress ball. Called "The 1903 Bal", it remains the most celebrated festivity arranged in St. Petersburg during the reign of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of the Romanov House.

After the balls of 11 and 13 February, 1903, the Empress commissioned the best photographers of St. Petersburg to make individual and collective pictures of participants. 173 of them were published in the form of an album of phototypes. Albums were sold with charitable purposes to the ball guests. Phototypes give a general idea of every participant’ fancy dress.

The 1903 festivity in the Winter Palace which already then attracted a good deal of attention appears now an event of an enduring historical significance.

News source: www.hermitage.ru
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