[1] Her parents, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Charlotte of Prussia, were devoted to each other and to their children.

Maria's education was placed under the supervision of the liberal privy Counselor and poet Vasily Zhukovsky, who had previously been Alexandra Feodorovna's Russian teacher.

[1] Artistically gifted, she showed an early interest in interior design, decorating her rooms with her personal style.

From 1835, Grand Duchess Maria was an active member of the patriots' society, which had been founded by Empress Elizabeth Alexeievna.

[5] Her sister Grand Duchess Olga, wrote in her girlhood diary that Maria was "hot tempered, attentive and generous towards the poor, sympathetic to good deeds, but could not bear pretense of coercion.

[citation needed] Empress Alexandra Feodorovna worried about finding a suitable husband for her most gifted and emotional daughter.

[5] In 1837 King Ludwig I of Bavaria sent his nephew Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg, to take part in cavalry maneuvers in Russia.

Maximilian was below the rank of royalty, only entitled to the style of Serene Highness as member of a secondary branch of the House of Bavaria.

[7] Maximilian was the last of the Leuchtenberg – Beauharnais family line and his mother feared that his descendants, brought up in the Orthodox faith, would be completely Russified.

He chose a site in the centre of St. Petersburg strategically positioned opposite St. Isaac's cathedral, on the banks of the Moika river.

[10] No expense was spared in fitting it out for the young couple, specially commissioned from the architect Andrei Stackensneider and, close enough to the Winter Palace for the Tsar to pay daily visits to his daughter.

[12] The grand duchess played a leading role in the decoration of her home, displaying her taste and sense of elegance.

Because Maria Nikolaievna was afflicted with circulatory leg problems, the Mariinsky Palace was designed with a staircase without steps installed in the right wing connecting all three floors away from the main rooms.

[citation needed] The palace was filled with works of arts and family relics, some of them inherited from Empress Josephine.

[citation needed] Maria Nikolaievna made a second marriage in 1854, to Count Grigori Alexandrovich Stroganov (16 June 1824 – 13 March 1879).

[14] In 1862, Maria Nikolaievna installed herself in Florence in the Villa Quarto, which had belonged to Jérôme Bonaparte, and appointed the painter and collector Karl Liphard as her advisor.

[11] In Italy, the Grand Duchess was zealous in her purchases of painting, sculptures and furniture for the complete refurbishing of her residence.

[15] Grand Duchess Maria probably suffered either from varicose veins or from some sort of bone disease, and by the end of her life she had become an invalid.

In 1884, her son, Nicholas Duke of Leuchtenberg, mounted an exhibition at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts with the Grand Duchess former collection.

After the revolution the collection was dispersed and now can be enjoyed in museums in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Vienna and the United States.

[15] Three of Maria's sons by the Duke of Leuchtenberg lived in her former residence the Mariinsky Palace until 1884, when it was sold to the treasury to pay for the family's mounting debts.