PORTRAIT OF PRINCESS DASHKOVA

Creator(s): Dimitrii Grigorievich Levitskii (Painter)

On view in: Second Floor Hallway

About this object

Born into the powerful Vorontsov family, Ekaterina Romanovna Dashkova was goddaughter of both Empress Elizabeth and the future Peter III. Despite these influential connections, at the age of nineteen she took part in the 1762 coup that placed Catherine II on the throne. For this service Dashkova received the Order of St. Catherine. In later life, she earned a considerable reputation as one of the most enlightened women of her day. Catherine II would eventually appoint her director of the Academy of Sciences and president of the Russian Academy. In 1789, she became the first woman elected to the American Philosophical Society through the sponsorship of Benjamin Franklin. Dashkova presented this portrait to her close friend Martha Wilmot, an Irishwoman who had lived at Dashkova’s Moscow estate in the early nineteenth century.

Princess Dashkova shown in half-length and is seen turned to the right. She has grey hair, a ruddy complexion. She wears the Russian court dress of a lady-in-waiting: a white undergown with diaphanous pleated sleeves and lace trim beneath a sleeveless robe of stiff blue satin with gold embroidery. Across her bodice hangs the red moire sash of the Order of St. Catherine. The star of the order is pinned to her gown, together with a diamond-studded lady-in-waiting pin set with a miniature portrait of the empress.

Object name:

PORTRAIT OF PRINCESS DASHKOVA

Made from:

Oil on canvas

Made in:

Saint Petersburg, Russia

Date made:

1784

Size:

Unframed: 23 1/2 × 19 1/2 in. (59.7 × 49.5 cm) Framed: 37 1/4 × 28 × 3 1/4 in. (94.6 × 71.1 × 8.3 cm)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:

51.66

Class:

PAINTING

Signature marks:

SIGNATURE; DATE P. (Pisal - painted by) Levitskoi 1784 go in Cyrillic [At bottom] INSCRIPTIONS Lent by the Rev. E. M. Walker / The Princess Dashkov by D. G. Levitsky 1735-1832 [On frame] INSCRIPTION J DAVIES [On back of frame] LABEL Established 1819 / Ryman & Co., Ltd. / Prinsellers, publishers [...] engavings [...] [On back of frame] LABEL Nature of Exhibit / Oil on canvas / Frame 31 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. [On back of frame]

Credit line:

Bequest of Marjorie Merriweather Post, 1973