The portrait of Empress Mariya Fedorovna was painted by Russian artist Vladimir Borovikovsky. In 1787 he moved to St. Petersburg at the invitation of Сatherine II who came to know the artist’s artwork while travelling along the Crimea sea coast. Inasmuch as Vladimir Borovikovsky was a retired serviceman he first studied painting in St. Petersburg — Dmitry Levitzky and Johanne Baptist Lampi Senior became his teachers.

Borovikovsky proved to be a capable student — shortly thereafter he began not only to make portraits of tsars and tsarinas but also introduced some new features in the Russian portrait painting. While the artist followed the tradition of sentimentalism he tried above all to discern a human being and the emotional stress experienced by every character depicted on his paintings.

Ceremonial portraits comprise a special set among Borovikovsky’s entire art heritage. They include, among others, the portrait of Empress Mariya Fedorovna, formerly German princess Sophia Dorothea Augusta Louise. In 1776 she married Grand Prince Pavel Petrovitch. In the course of their marriage they had 10 children, two of them — Alexander I and Nikolas I — were Russian Emperors. Mariya Fedorovna was active in charity work supporting children’s boarding houses. In her leisure time she did bone and stone carving, waxwork and painted pictures.

Vladimir Borovikovsky made her portrait at the end of the 18th century. As he was not well known at the time he could not expect the Empress to pose for him in person, so he had to make a free copy of the painting created earlier by his teacher Johanne Baptist Lampi Senior.

Mariya Fedorovna was portrayed with the Order of St Andrew the Apostle, the band and the star which she had received during the coronation ceremony of Pavel I on 5 April 1797. The Emperor was the first among the autocrats who granted such a valuable award to the spouse. Prior to December 1796 Mariya Fedorovna had been portrayed only with the red band, an attribute of the St. Catherine Order’s Grand Master which was typically awarded to Grand Princesses and high society ladies. Later the Empress posed for painters with two bands — St Andrew’s and St Catherine’s — and two stars from these orders.

A miniature image of the Emperor surrounded with diamond embroidery can be seen on Mariya Fedorovna’s chest

Flexible chiseled pins in fashion at the time called ziternadel are inserted into her hair as well as bright butterflies and asymmetric aigrettes — head decorations with feathers.

Borovikovsky subsequently created a whole series of female court portraits, the most well-known among them are portraits of Countess Maria Lopukhina, Princess Elena Naryshkina and sisters, princesses Anna and Varvara Gagarin. These paintings are on display at the Tretyakov Gallery.