Portrait of a lady, traditionally identified as Alexandra Evichovna Demidov (1745-1778), three-quarter-length, as Cleopatra

This portrait, traditionally identified as Alexandra Evichovna Demidov (1745–1778) costumed as Cleopatra, represents the recurring Batoni format of noble women depicted in mythological or historical disguise. The Demidov family were Russian industrial magnates elevated to nobility by Peter the Great, and their engagement with European high culture — including the Grand Tour — was intense from the mid-eighteenth century onward. If the identification is correct, Alexandra would have been sitting for Batoni in the late 1760s. The Cleopatra disguise, like Diana or Flora, allowed a real woman to be portrayed in a glamorously exotic historical role. The 'traditionally identified' qualification signals that the identification rests on family tradition rather than contemporary documentation, a common situation with Batoni's sitters.

Oil on canvas combining portraiture with historical costume. Cleopatra's Egyptian attributes — asp, crown, Egyptian dress — would be rendered with theatrical rather than archaeological precision. Batoni's warm palette and sharp face modelling survive intact beneath the exotic costume, ensuring the individual sitter's identity reads through the historical fiction.