Elizaveta Ksaveryevna Worontsova
The wife of Mikhail Semenovich Worontsov (1792-1880).
The first owner of Alupka, Elizabeth Ksaverevna Worontsova, nee Branitskaya, a woman whose name remained in Russian culture thanks to the masterpieces of Pushkin’s lyrics.
Being an artistically gifted person, she manifested herself in various spheres of social and cultural activity.
E.K. Worontsova was called by her contemporaries “one of the most attractive women of her time”, admired her soft, charming feminine grace, attractiveness, “rigorous panache”. Her charming appearance is also resurrected by numerous portraits. Executed in various manners and techniques by famous and lesser-known masters, they allow us, according to the writer V.A. Sologub, “it is easy to explain to ourselves how people like Pushkin, the hero of 1812 Rayevsky and many others fell madly in love with Princess Worontsova.”
She was young in soul, young in appearance. She did not have what is called beauty; but the quick, gentle look of her small, large eyes pierced through, the smile of her lips, which I have never seen like, seemed to invite kisses..."
CIT. by: Galichenko A.A., Tsar A.P. Alupka. Palace and Park. Kiev: Mystetvo, 1992 138).
"She was already over thirty years old, and she had every right to seem still very young. With innate Polish levity and coquetry, she wanted to be liked, and no one was better at it than her. She was young in soul, young in appearance. She did not have what is called beauty, but the quick, gentle look of her pretty eyes pierced through; the smile of her lips, which I had never seen before, seemed to invite kisses."
F.F. Vigel “Notes”