Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova

Commissioned by the parents of the sitter

Thence by descent

Julian Barran Ltd., London

Acquired from the above in 2001

Dating from late 1924, this portrait of Princess Irina Felixovna Yusupova predates those of her parents, Princess Irina Alexandrovna of Russia and Prince Felix Yusupov, which Serebriakova executed in 1925 and which are offered in this sale. Serebriakova had left Petrograd for good in late August 1924, arriving in Paris in early September. There, she was able to make a living with portrait commissions, at the beginning mostly from other Russian emigres.

Irina, or Bébé as she was called, was the only child of Felix and Irina Yusupov. Born in 1915, her parents fled Russia after the Revolution and settled in Paris in 1920. In 1938, she married another Russian aristocrat in exile, Nikolai Dmitrievich Sheremetiev.