Since the late nineteenth century, this portrait and its companion portrait of Alexandra Feodorovna, Empress of Russia (RCIN 408912), were thought to be copies by the Scottish artist Christina Robertson (1796–1854), after Carl Timoleon von Neff (also known as Timofey Andreyevich Neff), and were believed to have been presented by Nicholas I at around the time of his visit to England in 1844. However, recent research reveals that they are the work of Neff himself, copies of earlier works, possibly commissioned by the Emperor as a wedding gift to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

In 1838 the artist was commissioned to paint a portrait of two of the Emperor’s daughters, Maria and Olga (State Russian Museum, St Petersburg); by this time the artist was a rising star at the Russian court, having succeeded Karl Bryullov (1799–1852) as painter to the imperial family. Neff’s success was short-lived; having been eclipsed by the arrival in 1839 of Christina Robertson. Nonetheless, in 1840, Neff was commissioned to copy this portrait and paint the Empress (Pavlovsk State Museum), together with a repetition for Queen Victoria. On 15 October of the same year he received a payment of 2,857 rubles in silver for four paintings. The first copy painted for the Emperor was hung in the Alexander Palace at Tsarskoe Selo. Later in his career Neff spent time in Europe and was commissioned to paint the decoration and iconostasis for the Russian chapel of Maria, Duchess of Edinburgh at Clarence House; he also worked in other churches in Europe, notably in Nice and Wiesbaden.

The picture shows evidence of pencil under-drawing, and squaring up from the original; they are painted in a flat manner, with thin under-modelling rather crudely outlined. The portraits epitomise the briefly fashionable, stylised doll-like appearance of female sitters pioneered by Bryullov and his contemporaries.

The paintings must have arrived in their magnificent frames prior to the visit of Nicholas I, as Queen Victoria recorded her preparations on 1 June 1844 for the Emperor’s imminent arrival 'We […] then walked over to the rooms which have been arranged for the Emperor […] which we have brushed up & look as well as they possibly can; we have hung up some Russian Pictures including those of the 2 Grand duchesses & the Empress’.

Text adapted from Russia: Art, Royalty & the Romanovs, London, 2018