Dmitry Levitsky painted this portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna as a girl in 1791 when she was seven. His original intention was to use it later as a sketch for a big full-height portrait. In his painting, Alexandra Pavlovna, the eldest daughter of Pavel I, is in her full dress. Her head is trimmed with a chaplet of gemstones and fresh roses, forget-me-nots, and hyacinths, and the riband of the Order of Saint Catherine runs over her shoulder. The painter captured Alexandra’s tenderness and character behind the attributes of her high social standing. On the canvas, the Duchess came out as a nice gentle girl with soft features and tender rosy cheeks.

There was no need to embellish the artist’s model: Alexandra was growing to be a true beauty. That fact is confirmed by Catherine II in her letters. Yet, there is a record allegedly made by the Empress’s secretary which witnesses that, at first, the royal grandmother was not happy with her granddaughter’s looks. ‘Neither fish, flesh nor good red herring’, was what she said upon first seeing the newborn. But with time, Alexandra became her favorite darling. In 1790, Catherine boasted to Baron Grimm, ‘She has become pretty and tall and has such poise that she looks older than her age. She speaks four languages, writes well, draws, plays the harpsichord, sings, dances, learns easily and reveals a nature of extraordinary gentleness.’ At that time, Alexandra was only seven. The girl was being prepared for a good marriage to a foreign duke or a king, and she was getting the best education.

No one knew anything about this portrait of young Alexandra Pavlovna for a long time: it toured private collections. However, in 1975 the painting landed with the famous art conservator Savva Yamshikov at the Grabar Art Research and Conservation Center. The owner of the painting was nearing his end and asked the art conservator to pass the paintings from his collection to Russian national museums. Yamshikov donated this portrait of Alexandra Pavlovna to the Yaroslavl Art Museum.