Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, sometimes spelled Michael Woronzow

Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, painted by Lawrence around 1821 and now in the Hermitage Museum, was a central figure in the post-Napoleonic Russian Empire — a military commander who had distinguished himself at Borodino, an administrator who would govern New Russia and Bessarabia, and a man of European education whose Cambridge years had given him an Anglophile cultural orientation unusual among Russian grandees. Vorontsov's later career as Governor-General of New Russia and Viceroy of the Caucasus would be overshadowed for literary purposes by his conflict with Pushkin — who served under him briefly in Odessa, was dismissed at Vorontsov's request, and subsequently satirized him mercilessly in verse — but the portrait documents the young general before either his administrative achievements or his literary notoriety had defined his historical image. Lawrence met Vorontsov during the Russian's London visit, and the portrait's fluency reflects a sitting between two men of sophisticated cultural formation. The Hermitage's holding of this Lawrence portrait documents the European dimension of Russian cultural life in the period immediately following Napoleon's defeat.

Lawrence renders the Russian military uniform with characteristic fluency, the gold braiding and decorations gleaming against the dark fabric. The portrait conveys Vorontsov's aristocratic bearing through an elegant, assured composition.