Porträt der Catherine II of Russia (1729-1796)

Levitzky's 1787 portrait of Catherine II in oil on canvas — the current collection unrecorded — belongs to the large body of authorized imperial likenesses that the painter produced for distribution across the empire's administrative and diplomatic network. By 1787 the empress was fifty-eight and the visual image of her sovereignty had been so thoroughly codified through decades of portraiture that individual sittings were increasingly supplemented or replaced by work from authorized studio compositions. Levitzky's role in this image economy was both creator and codifier: his likenesses established the template that other painters followed, and his studio produced variations for different contexts. The unlocated canvas represents the dispersal of these images across Russia and Europe, many entering private collections where documentation of their origins was not preserved.

Oil on canvas in the authorized Catherine portrait format. The medium specification as oil paint rather than simply canvas suggests this was recorded from a different documentation source, but the technical approach would be consistent with Levitzky's standard imperial production: warm ground, cool modeled face, careful rendering of imperial costume and regalia.