Porträt der Elizaveta Grigorevna Temkina (b.1775)

Elizaveta Grigorievna Temkina (born 1775) appears here without allegorical attributes, in straightforward portrait mode, in contrast to the Diana portrait on zinc. The 1798 canvas in the Tretyakov Gallery depicts her as a young woman in her early twenties, the ambiguity of her origins perhaps reflected in the slightly private, inward quality of the expression Borovikovsky captured. Two portraits of the same sitter in the same year suggest she was a significant figure in the patronage networks of the late 1790s, whatever the official silence about her parentage. The Tretyakov holds both versions as a pair that together illuminate the complexity of female identity and status in the late Catherinian court.

Oil on canvas with smooth, confident handling and warm, luminous flesh tones. The paint surface is more conventional than the zinc version, with the characteristic warmth of Borovikovsky's best female portraits. The face is modelled with delicate precision, the sitter's features suggesting both beauty and a certain reserve.