The art collection of the State Pushkin Museum houses a portrait of Princess Anna Davydovna Baratynskaya, created by Aleksey Vasilyevich Vitkovsky.

Anna Baratynskaya, nee Abamelek, was one of St. Petersburg’s first beauties. She was the daughter of Prince David Semyonovich Abamelek, a major general in the Imperial Army, and Marfa Ioakimovna Lazareva. Her wealthy family provided her with a thorough home education. She spoke English, French, Armenian, Georgian, and German fluently, and later, after delving into religious literature, learned Greek as well. In 1832, she was appointed lady-in-waiting to Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna but continued to reside in her parents’ home. In 1835, she married Ilya Andreyevich Baratynsky (1802–1859), an aide-de-camp and uncle of the poet Yevgeny Abramovich Baratynsky. Early into her marriage, she resided in St. Petersburg, participated in social events and engaged in literary translation.

Anna Davydovna translated the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, Tyutchev and Nekrasov into French, and those of Tumansky, Apukhtin, and Aleksey Tolstoy into English, as well as the works of Goethe, Heine and Byron into Russian. In 1856, she was awarded the Order of Saint Catherine, 2nd Class, and in 1879, she received the Maria Feodorovna Medal for Immaculate Service of the 1st degree.

Pushkin first met the princess when she was still a child, during the time when the Abamelek family was based in Tsarskoye Selo, as the family head was serving in the Life Guard Hussar Regiment. In 1832, he dedicated a poem to the princess titled “For the Album of A.D. Abamelek”, which was a playful reminiscence of their first meeting,