Countess Ecaterina Vladimirovna Apraxine, nee Princess Galitzine (1768-1854)

This 1796 portrait of Countess Ecaterina Vladimirovna Apraxine documents Vigée Le Brun’s Russian patrons from one of the oldest noble families in the empire. The Apraxin family, descended from Tsaritsa Marfa Matveevna, belonged to the inner circle of Russian court society that embraced Vigée Le Brun during her St. Petersburg years. Vigée Le Brun was the most technically accomplished and socially successful woman painter of the eighteenth century, achieving membership of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1783 and a clientele that extended from the French royal family to the courts of Russia, Austria, and Italy during her decade of exile following the Revolution. Her portrait manner combined the neoclassical formal values of her training with a quality of feminine intimacy and emotional warmth that made her portraits of women and children especially celebrated. Her ability to make her sitters appear simultaneously dignified and approachable was the technical foundation of her social success.

The portrait presents the countess with the refined elegance Vigée Le Brun brought to her Russian commissions. Rich costume details and luminous skin tones are characteristic of her St. Petersburg period.