Tatiana was a famous beauty. She was tall, slender, and elegant. She had dark
auburn hair, gray eyes, and fine features. Many viewed her as the most beautiful of the four grand duchesses and the one who resembled their mother most. Her mother's lady-in-waiting Baroness
Sophie Buxhoeveden reflected that "Tatiana was, to my mind, prettier than her sisters. She was taller than her mother, but so thin and so well built that her height was not a hindrance to her attractiveness. She had beautiful, regular features, and resembled some of the famous beauties among her royal relatives, whose family portraits decorated the walls of the palace.. She had dark hair, a rather pale complexion, and wide-apart eyes, that gave her a poetic far-away look."
General Count Alexander Grabbe, wrote that "the prettiest of the Grand Duchesses was Tatiana, the Tsar's second daughter. In her physical appearance and her serious and ardent nature, she most resembled her mother. Slender with auburn hair and clear gray eyes, she was strikingly good looking and enjoyed the attention her beauty commanded." According to
Anna Vyrubova, "when Tatiana grew up, she was the tallest and most graceful of all the Grand Duchesses, beautiful and romantic. Many officers fell in love with Tatiana, but there were no appropriate suitors for her."
Meriel Buchanan described her beauty as "almost mystical." Alexander Mossolov, head of the Imperial Chancellery, wrote that Tatiana was "the best-looking of all the sisters."
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia called her "the leading beauty of the family". Her nanny
Margaretta Eagar wrote that she was "a very pretty child, remarkably like her mother, but delicate in appearance." In 1900, the British magazine,
Woman at Home, wrote that "the flower of the flock, as far as looks are concerned ... is Grand Duchess Tatiana." Nicholas wrote that Tatiana was "a very beautiful child" and he often remarked that she reminded him of
Alexandra. When she was 8, her tutor
Pierre Gilliard said that she "was prettier than her
sister." Despite her high status, Tatiana did not use her Imperial title and her friends, family, and servants called her by her first name and
patronym, Tatiana Nikolaevna. The only nicknames that can be found for her using primary sources are 'Tanechka' in a postcard from her cousin
Princess Irina Alexandrovna, and 'Tan'ka' in some notes from her sister, Anastasia Nikolaevna. According to one story, Tatiana kicked her lady-in-waiting Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden for addressing her as "Your Imperial Highness" during a committee meeting, and she hissed, "Are you crazy to speak to me like that?" Tatiana was interested in fashion. According to Sophie Buxhoeveden, "Tatiana Nicolaevna loved dress. Any frock, no matter how old, looked well on her. She knew how to put on her clothes, was admired and liked admiration." Tatiana was the most sociable of the four sisters. According to Sophie Buxhoeveden, "friends would have been welcome, but no young girls were ever asked to the Palace." A.A. Mosolov claimed that Tatiana's reserved nature gave her a "difficult" character with more spiritual depth than that of her sister, Olga. Her English tutor,
Sydney Gibbes, claimed that Tatiana viewed religion as a duty rather than a passion. Only her closest friends and family were aware of her introspective side. "With her, as with her mother, shyness and reserve were accounted as pride, but, once you knew her and had gained her affection, this reserve disappeared and the real Tatiana became apparent," Dehn recalled. "She was a poetical creature, always yearning for the ideal, and dreaming of great friendships which might be hers." "I am so terribly embarrassed and frightened – I do not know whom I greeted and whom not," Tatiana told Chebotareva. Like her sisters, Tatiana was unworldly and naive. When she was young, she was shocked to learn that her governess Margaretta Eagar was paid for taking care of her. When Eagar told her that "you have seen me get my money every month," Tatiana replied that "I always thought it was a present to you." When her lady-in-waiting sent a carriage without an attendant, Tatiana and Olga decided to go shopping for the first time. They ordered the carriage to stop near a group of shops and went into one of the stores. The shopkeepers did not recognize them because they wore nurses' uniforms. They left the shop without buying anything, because they didn't carry money with them and had no idea how to use it. The next day, they asked Chebotareva how to use money. Tatiana was closer to her mother than any of her sisters, and many considered her to be Alexandra's favorite daughter. On 13 March 1916, Alexandra wrote to Nicholas that Tatiana was the only one of their four daughters who "grasped it" when she explained her way of looking at things. Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden wrote that Tatiana "was closest in sympathy to her mother" and "the definite favorite of both her parents." Tatiana was close to her father. Lili Dehn wrote that "the Emperor loved her devotedly [and] they had much in common." She recalled that "the sisters used to laugh, and say that, if a favour were required, "Tatiana must ask Papa to grant it."" ==Early life==