Portrait of Ekaterina Arsenieva, Pupil at the Smolny Finishing School
Mid-1780s
-
Location in museum
The Mikhailovsky Palace
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
Room 12 - Period 18th century
- CategoryPortrait
- Share
Ekaterina Nikolaevna Arsenieva (1778–?): Eldest daughter of Major General Nikolai Arseniev (chief of staff of Count Alexander Suvorov) and V. I. Ushakova. Studied at the Smolny Institute. Ladyin-waiting to Empress Marie Fyodorovna (1796). Married full state councillor P. F. Kozlov (1800). Russian Museum: From Icons to the Modern Times. Palace Editions, St Petersburg, 2015. P. 97.
Portrait painting is unique due to its high painting features: a clear plasticity of form, refined picturesqueness, well developed air atmosphere. The daughter of military general is depicted in a white dress with a pearl bracelet and with an apple in her hand. Researchers gave funny and flirty Ekaterina Arsenyeva a nickname "Russian Venus with a snub nose." Portrait is a part of a series of "sentimental" female portraits of the 1790s.