Portrait of Grand Duchess Elizaveta Alekseevna

Description

Oil on canvas, 32cm by 26cm, circa 1810, in the original frame

The portrait is in its original frame of circa 1810, from which it appears never to have been removed, and is in excellent, untouched condition.

Elizabeth Alekseevna (1779-1826), born Princess Louise of Baden, is shown as a 16-year-old Grand Duchess. Her husband Alexander I acceded to the throne in 1801.

The original, larger portrait was painted by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun in 1795. The Empress sent it as a present to her mother; it is still owned by the Landgraves of Hesse and is today at Schloss Wolfsgarten near Frankfurt. Another version, dated 1798, is at the Hermitage Museum (Inventory number GE-7615)

Princess Louise of Baden was a daughter of Charles Louis, Hereditary Prince of Baden, and of his wife, Landgravine Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. She came to Russia in November 1792, where she was chosen by Empress Catherine II as a bride for her eldest grandson, Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, the future Tsar Alexander I. Louise converted to the Orthodox Church, took the title of Grand Duchess of Russia and the name Elizaveta Alekseevna. She married Alexander on 28 September 1793, when he was fifteen and she was fourteen.