Porträt des Denis Diderot (1713-1784)

Denis Diderot, the encyclopedist, philosopher, and art critic whose Salons essentially invented modern art criticism, visited Saint Petersburg at Catherine II's invitation in 1773–74, and Levitzky painted him during this stay — one of the few authentic likenesses of the philosopher made outside France. That the portrait ended up at the Museum of Art and History in Geneva rather than in a French or Russian institution reflects the international circulation of images of famous Enlightenment figures. Diderot sat for Levitzky during a period of intense intellectual exchange: the encyclopedist was advising the empress on educational reform, debating philosophy with the court's leading minds, and absorbing the spectacle of an autocracy that expressed itself in the vocabulary of Enlightenment. Levitzky's portrait participates in the same circuit of ideas — here is a Russian painter trained in the European tradition capturing a French philosopher visiting a Russian court, all three parties claiming allegiance to universal Reason.

Oil on canvas with the philosopher's relatively modest dress allowing Levitzky to focus attention on the face — the natural center of any portrait of a man famous primarily for the quality of his thought. The modeling of the face would have been given particular attention, capturing the animated intelligence that contemporaries described as Diderot's most striking characteristic.