In 1834, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov graduated from the School of Cavalry Junkers and Ensign of the Guard in St. Petersburg as a cornet in the His Majesty’s Life Guards Hussar Regiment. The regiment was quartered in Tsarskoye Selo. On this occasion, his grandmother commissioned a portrait of her grandson. This portrait became one of the most famous images of Lermontov.

It is believed that the artist embellished the appearance of Mikhail Lermontov in the portrait. His second cousin Akim Shan-Giray recalled,

At first, the portrait was dated 1834. However, biographers of Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov noticed that in the painting the poet is depicted in the uniform of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment with epaulets of the 1837 standard. Thus, the portrait was made between April 9, 1838, the beginning of Lermontov’s return to service in the Life Guards, and December 6, 1839. Then Lermontov was awarded the rank of lieutenant, which corresponds to two stars on the epaulets. In this portrait, there is one star on Mikhail Lermontov’s epaulets.