Description
After Virgilius Eriksen
Portrait of Catherine II, Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, wearing a traditional Kokoshnik and fur-trimmed bolero, an embroidered dress and an elaborate pearl necklace
Head and shoulders
Oil on canvas
62 x 47cm; 24½ x 18½in
Eriksen was appointed court painter to Catherine II and he painted several portraits of her. The pastel original of this portrait no longer survives, but several copies are known to exist, mainly executed in the late 18th and early 19th Century. One copy was given by Catherine in 1769 to Dr Thomas Dimsdale, the English Doctor who discovered inoculation against small pox. He travelled to Russia to inoculate the Empress and her grand children and this picture was later engraved in mezzotint by William Dickinson and published on June 20th 1773 in London.
