The artist Giovanni Battista Damon Ortolani completed this portrait in the second half of the 19th century. In those years, he was one of the most popular Italian painters in Russia, who worked on commissions from the Russian nobility. The most famous are his portraits of Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin, Ekaterina-Karolina Alexandrovna Dolgorukova, Alexander Nikolaevich Dolgorukov, and Sergey Sergeevich Golitsyn.
The attribution of the portrait from the collection of the Lipetsk Regional Museum of Local Lore took a long time. Initially, it was listed as a portrait of a noblewoman Khozikova by an unknown artist. Museum staff contacted the descendant of the family — Arkady Vladimirovich from St. Petersburg.
Thanks to the archival materials that he provided, it was possible to establish that this portrait depicted Maria Fyodorovna Khozikova, nee Skaryatina, wife of Nikolay Markovich Khozikov, grandson of Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov.
Both the Demidovs and the Khozikovs had lands in the Lipetsk and Lebedyansk districts. The portrait was apparently commissioned in Moscow, where the Khozikov family lived at that time and where their first child Fyodor was born in 1806.
The question about the painter remained open. According to the restorer of the highest category, an employee of the State Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Ekaterina Yuryevna Ivanova, the portrait was painted by the Italian painter Giovanni Ortolani.
The artist depicted a young woman with an expressive face, dark gray eyes and a bright blush on her cheeks. Her posture is natural and relaxed. Her thoughtfully careless hairstyle and hot face, the red shawl that falls from her shoulder and the dress with a deep neckline and high waistline — all emphasize her emotional and romantic personality.
The master managed to emphasize not just the signs of her social class and create a typical image of a woman of his time, but also to deeply reveal her individuality. The portrait entered the museum along with other items from the Khozikov estate in Telezhenka, which were donated by Anna Vladimirovna Khozikova in the first years of Soviet power. In 1918–1920, she worked at the museum as an assistant to director Mikhail Pavlovich Trunov.
The attribution of the portrait from the collection of the Lipetsk Regional Museum of Local Lore took a long time. Initially, it was listed as a portrait of a noblewoman Khozikova by an unknown artist. Museum staff contacted the descendant of the family — Arkady Vladimirovich from St. Petersburg.
Thanks to the archival materials that he provided, it was possible to establish that this portrait depicted Maria Fyodorovna Khozikova, nee Skaryatina, wife of Nikolay Markovich Khozikov, grandson of Prokofy Akinfievich Demidov.
Both the Demidovs and the Khozikovs had lands in the Lipetsk and Lebedyansk districts. The portrait was apparently commissioned in Moscow, where the Khozikov family lived at that time and where their first child Fyodor was born in 1806.
The question about the painter remained open. According to the restorer of the highest category, an employee of the State Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Ekaterina Yuryevna Ivanova, the portrait was painted by the Italian painter Giovanni Ortolani.
The artist depicted a young woman with an expressive face, dark gray eyes and a bright blush on her cheeks. Her posture is natural and relaxed. Her thoughtfully careless hairstyle and hot face, the red shawl that falls from her shoulder and the dress with a deep neckline and high waistline — all emphasize her emotional and romantic personality.
The master managed to emphasize not just the signs of her social class and create a typical image of a woman of his time, but also to deeply reveal her individuality. The portrait entered the museum along with other items from the Khozikov estate in Telezhenka, which were donated by Anna Vladimirovna Khozikova in the first years of Soviet power. In 1918–1920, she worked at the museum as an assistant to director Mikhail Pavlovich Trunov.
