Portrait of empress elizabeth the portrait of elizabeth petrovna was commissioned by catherine ii, who decided to place it in the portrait hall of the great tsarskoye selo palace. The commission was entrusted to the german artist heinrich buchholz (1735-1781), who worked in st. Petersburg from the 1760s and never saw elizabeth petrovna. The artist based his work on the composition of a large formal portrait of elizabeth by the french artist l. Tocquet (1758). Following the canons of the genre, buchholz created a pompous portrait with all the obligatory attributes: imperial regalia - a scepter in his hand and an orb on the table, a brocade mantle embroidered with double-headed eagles and "lined" with ermine, a small crown on the head. The fabric of the clothes, the lace, the folds on the moire ribbon, the sparkling jewels, which look almost tangible, are beautifully conveyed. All the "dolichnaya" writing is flawless, but the artist himself could not get the face right; all his painted versions were rejected. It was decided to make an insertion into the composition - to "sew" into the canvas one of the portraits of elizabeth, which were in the studio of the artist l. Caravaque, who repeatedly painted her images during the empress's lifetime. Upon close examination in oblique light, the square of the sewn-in canvas is clearly visible. Over time, the history of the portrait's creation was forgotten and the members of the art commission paid attention to it only in 1917, when they inspected the paintings of the catherine palace, transforming it into a museum. A. N. Benois, d. A. Schmidt, p. I. Neradovsky are the authors of this attribution. Among the numerous images of elizabeth, this canvas occupies a special place, since it is a joint work of three painters - l. Tocque, l. Caravaque, g. Buchholz, and is considered today a symbol of the elizabethan era. The portrait is framed by a magnificent carved gilded frame - it is a precious setting for the image of the mistress of the palace and, looking at it, it begins to seem that elizabeth herself, sparkling with diamonds, in a luxurious dress, appears before her numerous guests in the flowing golden carving doors of the grand enfilade of the fabulous beautiful tsarskoye selo palace. Object Type: painting. Genre: portrait. Date: 1768. Medium: painting. Depicted People: Elizabeth I of Russia. Collection: Tsarskoye Selo. Elisabeth Petrovna by Heinrich Buchholz
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