Not later than 1716
oil on canvas
102 x 71

This portrait is one of the earliest works in Russian domestic art made by a Russian artist in the European manner. Tsarevna Natalya Alekseevna (1673–1716) was the sister of Emperor Peter the Great and an active partisan of the reforms he carried through. She was well educated: she spoke foreign languages and participated in the founding of the theatre in Russia. The outward appearance of the heroine, namely the design of her dress, her wig, the manner of her pose, reveal the style of the New Age. At the same time the portrait’s pictorial language still reflects medieval painting: the rigidly presented bends and folds of the fabric, the relative flatness in the treatment of the body, although the face of the heroine is drawn in volume. The presence in the painting of features from different periods and the duality in the artistic solutions were natural for the early period when secular art was taking shape.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 1