1863
oil on canvas
245 x 187,5

The artist’s attention was drawn to the legendary history of the adventurer who was widely known in Russian history as Elizaveta Tarakanova (circa 1745 – 1775). She said she was the daughter of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna from a secret marriage with A.G. Razumovsky and advanced her claims to the Russian throne. On orders of Catherine the Great, Count A.G. Orlov tricked Tarakanova into leaving Italy for St Petersburg, where she was confined in the Peter and Paul Fortress and died of tuberculosis. This is the official version of the history of Princess Tarakanova as published in the Encyclopedic Dictionary. There is also a legend that Tarakanova died during the flood of 1777. Part of the public viewed Flavitsky’s work as an exposé of state despotism. Alexander II commented that the subject “was taken from a novel which has no historical truth.”

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 16