Portrait of Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna, previously known as Portrait of a Lady

Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna was a member of the Russian Golitsyn family, one of the great noble dynasties of the Russian Empire, many of whose members spent extended periods in Paris as part of the European Grand Tour culture of the eighteenth century. The 1757 portrait, now in the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, was long catalogued simply as Portrait of a Lady—a common fate for works where documentation had been separated from the image—before the sitter's identity was established through research. Russian aristocrats visiting Paris were significant patrons of French art and fashion, and being painted by Nattier was precisely the kind of cultural credential a Russian noble sought in the French capital. The Pushkin Museum's acquisition reflects the movement of French Rococo paintings eastward through diplomatic gifts, purchases, and the collecting activities of Russian nobles and later the Soviet state.

The 1757 canvas shows Nattier in his late mature period—his technique fully established, his approach to female portraiture operating through well-practised but still vital observation. The Russian sitter receives the same refined treatment as his French subjects.