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Portrait of Daria Menshikova (?)

Before October 1727

  • oil on canvas. 127 х 102,9
  • Ж-3998

  • Received in 1925 from the State Hermitage (Romanov Gallery)


Daria Menshikova (March 19, 1682 – May 10, 1728). Her Highness the Princess, daughter of Mikhail Arsenyev who was the military commander of Yakutia and a stolnik (cupbearer). After Alexander Menshikov was arrested in autumn 1727 she was banished together with him. She died on May 10, 1728 near Kazan.

It is possible that the portrait is based on the original painted by Louis Caravaque. In order to be placed in the Romanov Gallery the original canvas was extended along the perimeter. For many years, starting from the portrait exhibition of 1870, the painting was counted as a portrait of Tsarevna Catherine Ioannovna. However, it is obvious that the person depicted is actually Daria Menshikova, the wife of Prince Alexander Menshikov. The portrait has to have been painted before September 1727 when Menshikov was arrested and banished.


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