Porträt der Catherine Vorontsova, later Catherine Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (1783-1856)

Raeburn's portrait of Catherine Vorontsova — later Catherine Herbert, Countess of Pembroke — painted around 1810 depicts a Russian aristocrat who married into the English peerage. Catherine was the daughter of Count Semyon Vorontsov, Russian ambassador in London, and her English upbringing made her a notable figure bridging British and Russian court cultures. The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts holding reflects the work's Russian collecting provenance. Raeburn portrays her with the directness and warmth that distinguished his female portraits from the more mannered work of his London contemporaries.

The portrait shows Raeburn's characteristic confidence with female subjects: the face is modeled with his square-touch method but softened appropriately, the dress rendered with decorative attention to texture. The hair and accessories are handled with precision that balances the bolder passages of the figure's structure.