PIMEN NIKITICH ORLOV | PORTRAIT OF FEDOR CHERNYSHEV

Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 19th Century European Paintings, 4 June 1975, lot 91

Acquired at the above sale by the grandfather of the present owner

Ukazatel' khudozhestvennykh proizvedenii, vystavlennykh v zalakh Imperatorskoi Akademii khudozhestv, St Petersburg, 1846, p.15 listed

St Petersburg, Imperial Academy of Arts, 1846

Taking extended leave from his service in the Preobrazhensky Life-Guard Regiment, Fedor Chernyshev travelled around Italy between 1844-1845, where he associated with the community of Russian artists living there. The present portrait, painted by Pimen Orlov in Rome in 1845, depicts Chernyshev in his aide-de-camp uniform, a position he was appointed to by Emperor Nicholas I in 1838. In 1846, the portrait was exhibited at the Imperial Academy of Arts with the title Portrait of aide-de-camp Chernyshev.

From an illustrious family himself, Chernyshev married Alexandra Shishmareva who is immortalised with her sister Olga in Alexander Briullov’s masterpiece Portrait of the Shishmareva Sisters (1839, The State Russian Museum).