The artist is Borovikovsky
At the end of the eighteenth century, Borovikovsky creates a number of portraits (mainly female) and approves in portrait painting a new type of man, "not composed, but open only to them" (portraits in. And. Arsenyeva, m. And. Lopukhina, n. AND. Naryshkina, m. AND. Orlova-Denisova and others.). In the portrait of Skobeeva (name, middle name is unknown), as in most others, the artist used his already established compositional scheme: a semi -figure model with clearly expressed portrait features with crossed hands is depicted in a light dress against the background of the landscape. Open, with large features, an energetic face expresses determination and courage, which is quite confirmed by the facts of the biography of the portrait. Skobeeva – daughter of the Kronstadt sailor, pupil and favorite D. P. Troshchinsky, State Secretary of Catherine II. There is a version that, trying to resist her ambiguous position, the girl ran from the guardian and married a poor Smolensk landowner. Skobeev. Perhaps, as a sign of the approval of this union, the couple wanted to have a portrait of the brush of the most fashionable portrait. The head of the family ordered the artist two portraits of his wife: on the bosom of nature (this portrait) and in the image of the inaccessible Diana (Skobeev in the form of Diana. The end of the 1790s. Gim. Version of this portrait of smaller size).
