The French painter Nicolas de Courteille learnt painting in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and as many of his contemporaries he was under the influence of Jacques-Louis David, a French painter in the Neoclassical style. Late 18th – early 19th centuries, Nicolas de Courteille was already a famous painter. He came to Russia and started to work in Saint Petersburg and Moscow. In 1806, he became a Russian citizen and, in 1811, he was awarded the title of Academician of Painting for his work Philoctetes in the Island of Lemnos.

Russian clients especially praised Nicolas de Courteille as a portrait painter. In 1819, he created Portrait of an Unknown Woman. The model is depicted almost frontal in a relaxed sitting position with her head turned a little. To depict a slight blush over the cheeks and a smooth transition of nude colors, the painter must have used a retouching technique, a special spreading of paint with varnish or oil. To paint the collar, he used glazing, a special technique of applying semitransparent paints over the basic color. This technique helps to convey the smooth and soft transition of shades and colors.

However, in comparison with these works, the Portrait of an Unknown woman is performed less perfectly from the technical point of view, as it does not contain so many details and a variety of shades and undertints.

Prince Nikolay Yusupov ordered Nicolas de Courteille historical paintings as well. In 1830, the artist painted Cupid and Psyche and before the 1850s, the exact year is not known, he depicted the smithy of Sestroretsk Arms Plant.