Michele Gordigiani

Collection of Nadezhda Mikhailovna Polovtsova (acquired directly from the artist)
Thence by descent

Oil on lined canvas. The surface is covered with a layer or varnish. Pigment has been lost to the outer edges and under UV a vertical repair is visible to the right of the sitter's neck. A couple of small retouches are also visible, though the varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a wood frame with decorative molding. Unexamined out of frame.
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Nadezhda Polovtsova is believed to have been the illegitimate daughter of the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, who was the youngest son of Emperor Paul I and the brother of Tsar Nicholas I. She became the foster child of Baron Aleksandr Stieglitz (1814-1884), a millionaire financier and leading philanthropist for the arts in Russia. Today, Stieglitz is remembered for his crucial role in the advancement of Russian arts education through his founding of the Central School of Technical Drawing in St. Petersburg in 1878 (now known as the Mukhina Institute of Industrial Arts) and the Stieglitz Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts.

Gordigiani's almost life-size portrait of Polovtsova captures its subject's striking resemblance to various members of the Imperial family.