Nikolai Argunov painted the The Portrait of the Unknown roughly about 1810s. He has done the work in the style of classicism. The artist built the colouring of the portrait on matching the white and the red of the garments with the neutral brown and grey background. Such gamut was typical for the classical chamber portrait. And yet, the work differed from the traditional paintings of this trend by the master’s paying a particular attention to the individual features of the model.

Despite having been born to a family of serfs he learned to draw in childhood. At first he copied the works of his father, Ivan Argunov, a well-known painter. Then he began to accomplish his skill, copying paintings from the Hermitage Museum.
After the death of Nikolai Sheremetev, the owner of the Argunovs, the new proprietors dismissed all their serfs and allowed them to earn their living. Actually, the formal liberation the artist obtained only seven years later. By that time he already chose clients himself and did not pay the quitrent – the fee due to the landlord from the income of his serfs. In 1816, for his paintings the artist was conferred the status of the appointed academician, and after two years he became an academician, although he never studied in the Imperial Academy of Arts.
The Portrait of the Unknown was acquired by the New Jerusalem Museum from a private collection in 1974. The history of this creation is unknown as well. Some experts believe that the painting stayed for a while in Sheremetev’s estate Ostankino, in the suburbs of Moscow. For the owners of this place, his former proprietors, Argunov painted a lot of portraits.