Portrait of Elizabeth Grigorievna Temkin in Diana's image

Elizabeth Grigorievna Temkin was the rumoured illegitimate daughter of Catherine the Great and Grigory Potemkin, and her identity — never officially acknowledged but widely known in court circles — gives this 1798 portrait a particular historical charge. Borovikovsky depicted her in the guise of Diana, Roman goddess of the hunt — a choice that alludes to Catherine the Great's own identification with the goddess and perhaps gestures to Temkin's ambiguous status: powerful enough to be associated with imperial symbolism, but officially invisible in the dynastic record. Executed on zinc rather than canvas — an unusual support — the portrait is preserved in the Tretyakov Gallery as a rare example of this technique in Russian painting.

The zinc support is an unusual choice that provides an exceptionally hard, non-absorbent painting surface. This allows for very precise detail and sharp tonal transitions. The smooth zinc ground contributes to the enamel-like finish characteristic of this portrait, appropriate to the allegorical and slightly otherworldly character of the Diana conceit.