(Malmö 1718–1793 Paris)
Portrait of Catherine II, Empress of Russia (Catherine the Great), half-length,
oil on canvas, 83 x 65.4 cm, framed

Provenance:
Catherine II, Empress of Russia (Catherine the Great) by whom given to Giovanni Pietro Grimani Venetian Ambassasor to Saint Petersburg in 1795;
Giovanni Pietro Grimani (1754-?) Venetian Ambassador to Saint Petersburg (1789-1795);
his daughter Maria Carolina Grimani;
her son Andrea Marcello Grimani Giustinian;
his son Giovanni Marcello Giustinian;
and thence by decent to the present owner
We are grateful to Roberto Pancheri for suggesting that the present painting may be from the Studio of Alexander Roslin (Malmo 1718–1793 Paris) and that Roslin’s working process is mentioned in a communication to Alexandr Kurakin (Arcihiv knjazja F. A. Kurakina, 1901, No.1747) (see E. P. Renne, in: Caterina di Russia, exhibition catalogue, Florence Palazzo Strozzi, 23rd May - 9th August 1998, p. 21).

The present painting derives form Alexander Roslin´s full-length portrait of Catherine II (1729-1796) today in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg (inv. GE 1316). Catherine is shown in a so-called Slavic costume with an imperial cape and the order of Saint Andrew in diamonds which had been made by the Jérémie Poussier for the empress in 1750. Roslin was commissioned to paint the full-length portrait in 1776.

Jacob von Stählin, the imperial librarian states that Roslin made an half-length portrait of Catherine (see Stählin, ed. 1990, cit. in: Caterina di Russia, exhibition catalogue, Florence Palazzo Strozzi, 23rd May-9th August 1998, p. 21) which has been interpreted as being two portrait miniatures (see A. E. Krol, Aleksandr Roslin i eeo rabota v Peterburee, in: Skandinavskij sbornik, vol. 15, 1970, p. 226).

We are also grateful to Elizaveta Renne for pointing out that Paul Dalmann (1734-1779) worked in Roslin’s studio and that other artists such as Dimitriy Levitskiy and Feodor Rokotov made copies after Roslin´s work.