Porträt des Graf Dmitri Nikolaevich Sheremetev

Kiprensky's portrait of Count Dmitri Nikolaevich Sheremetev, painted in 1824 and now in the State Historical Museum in Moscow, depicts a member of one of Russia's most prestigious and wealthy aristocratic families at a significant moment in the Sheremetev family history. The Sheremetevs had been among the most powerful noble families in Russia since the seventeenth century, distinguished by both their political eminence and their extraordinary cultural patronage — the Sheremetev serf theatre at Ostankino was one of the most remarkable cultural institutions in imperial Russia. The 1824 date places the portrait in the later years of Alexander I's reign, before the Decembrist crisis that would fundamentally alter the atmosphere of Russian cultural life. Kiprensky's ability to secure the commission of such a prominent family at this point in his career reflects his established position as Russia's leading portraitist.

Oil on canvas, the portrait of a Sheremetev count requires Kiprensky to balance the demands of aristocratic representation — the visual communication of rank, wealth, and family distinction — with the psychological individuality that distinguished his work from the more purely official portraiture of his contemporaries. The handling of formal dress and decorations is precise and appropriate to the commission's social weight.