Portrait of a young woman in the Russian costume was executed in 18th century and depsite absence of signature have all stilistic, compositive and timely criteria to be to attributed to the hand of famous Russian-Italian baroque painter Count Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707 Verona - 1762 St.Petersburg). The artist was a pupil of Rob.Audenaerd, studied as well under Ant.Balestra in Venice, Fr.Trevisani in Rome and Fr.Solimena in Naples. In 1734 he went back to Verona, where he opened his own painting school. Around 1750 the artist moved to Vienna, and afterwards followed the invitation of August III to Dresden. In 1756 Rotari was invited to St.Petersburg by Tsarina Elisabeth and appointed a royal painter. There he was a teacher of the future famous Russian painters Argunov, Antropov and Rokotov. Even when Peter III and Catherine II, he was in favor - he posed portrait of her and she later bought his series of portraits, the human passions (so he was already known in Dresden) and adorned them in a room in Peterhof. Rotari created also rows of portraits women, children and men from the Russian folk, and many other portraits of people of Russian society and the court. 50 of these portraits of women from Russia handed the Empress Elizabeth of Russia's Academy of Arts and 360 were in the Cabinet of the fashions and graces at Peterhof, and Catherine II bought more (she bought for 14,000 rubles after artists death the majority of Rotarisworks). He also painted a few large historical paintings in St. Petersburg.

Literature:"General Artist´s Lexicon " by Thieme/Becker; Leipzig, 1999, in comparison with other paintings by the same artist see in on-line google and wikipedia .

Inscription: unsigned

Technique: oil on canvas  . Original period frame.

Measurements:  unframed w 12 1/4" x h 18 1/5" (35,5 cm  x 45 cm), framed w 16 1/5" x h 22" (50,5 x 59 cm).

Condition: in  good condition, canvas was relined in the 19 century