Varvara Golovina

Varvara Golovina
Countess

Countess Golovina, by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Spouse(s) Nikolai Nikolaevich Golovin
Noble family House of Golitsyn
Father Nikolai Fyodorovich Golitsyn (1728-1780)
Mother Praskovia Ivanovna Shuvalova (1734-1802)
Born 1766
Russian Empire
Died 1819
Paris, France
Occupation artist and memoirist

Countess Varvara Nikolayevna Golovina née Princess Golitsyna (Russian: Варвара Николаевна Головина, урожденная княжна Голицына, 1766–1819) was an artist and memoirist from Russian nobility and a close confidant of Empress Elizabeth.

Biography

She was the youngest child of Lieutenant-General Nikolai Fyodorovich Golitsyn (1728-1780) and Princess Praskovia Ivanovna Shuvalova (1734-1802). She had two brothers: Fyodor (1751-1827) and Ivan (1759-1777).

Varvara's father was from the House of Golitsyn. Her mother, Praskovia Ivanovna, was a sister of Ivan Shuvalov (1727-1798).

Varvara grew up on the Petrovsky estate in the Moscow province. Her mother was mild, kind, although indecisive character, who loved art and valued education.

In 1777, Varvara moved with her parents to Saint Petersburg. After the death of her father, she moved with her mother to the house of her uncle, Ivan Shuvalov, on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Malaya Sadovaya.

Varvara was fond of painting and music. She participated in concerts of Tsarskoe Selo and the Winter Palace, where she sang songs of his own composition.

In 1783, she was appointed a maid of honor at the court of Catherine the Great.

Marriage

Varvara Golovina.

At the court, Varvara met a handsome Count Nikolai Nikolayevich Golovin (1756-1820), a grandson of Generalissimo Field Marshal Count Fyodor Alexeyevich Golovin. They liked each other, but Princess Golitsyna opposed an immediate marriage, finding it premature. Golitsyna went on four years of foreign travel, spending much of her time in Paris, but his acquaintances and connections there had nothing to do with literature or the arts.

Upon returning from a trip, Varvara married Count Golovin, on 4 October 1786. The wedding was celebrated at the Winter Palace.

The Golovins were very fond of each other, and gave the impression of a happy couple. Descriptions of Nikolai Golovin by his contemporaries were controversial, most of them unfriendly. Promoted to the rank of colonel, he felt no inclination to any military or the civil service, but his strict honesty was noted.

In 1796, Nikolai Golovin was appointed to the court of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich (future Alexander I).

Golovina was close friends with Louise of Baden, later Empress Elizabeth, who was deeply unhappy in Russia. In her memoirs, written with the direction of the empress, she described the life at the courts of Catherine the Great and Paul I.

In 1802, Varvara Golovina went to Paris for several years, returning to Russia in 1805.

She returned to Paris and died there in 1819, and was buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Her memoirs were later published in France

Children

In marriage, Varvara had four children:


Polish-Canadian author Eva Stachniak published an historical novel, The Winter Palace (2012), as a fictional portrayal of Varvara's life at the Russian court. She is portrayed as a spy for the Empress Elizabeth to be used when her new daughter-in-law, the future Catherine the Great, arrives as a teenager at a court teeming with intrigue. Varvara is written as sympathetic to the young princess and, under instruction from the Empress, poses herself to Catherine as her friend inside the machinations of her mother-in-law's closed world. Ultimately her loyalties are tested when Elizabeth wants information that Varvara doesn't want to give as she finds herself more of a friend to Catherine than Elizabeth.

Works

See also

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