Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt
Painting by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1796) at Louvre museum
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Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1796 by the French painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. Its subject, Yekaterina von Engelhardt, was a Russian noblewoman and lady in waiting. The portrait was produced in Saint Petersburg and now is held in the Louvre, in Paris, which acquired it in 1966.[1] It was exhibited in Saint Petersburg in 1905 as part of the exhibition Russian Portraits of the 18th and 19th Centuries.[1]
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| Portrait of Countess Yekaterina von Engelhardt | |
|---|---|
| |
| Artist | Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun |
| Year | 1796 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 80 cm × 66 cm (31 in × 26 in) |
| Location | Louvre, Paris |
Other versions
An earlier portrait of the same subject was produced by the artist in Naples in 1790 and is now in the Musée Jacquemart-André in Paris.[2]
Description and analysis
The portrait represents Skavronskaia smiling, dressed in a white and blue dress, while leaning on a red velvet cushion. She is depicted on a black background which contrasts with the warm light which seems to radiate from her look and her chest and is reflected on the cushion. She has a sweet and gentle expression and looks directly at the viewer.
For Marie-Jo Bonnet, this painting it is an ode to feminine beauty, softness and tranquillity; she also underlines that the painting of Vigée Le Brun was not seen by her contemporaries as typically feminine, but as a personification of grace as understood in her time.[3]