The portrait of Margarita Zotova was taken on to the New Jerusalem Museum collection in 1954 arriving from the Volokolamsk Local History Museum. The painting was found at the Chernyshevs-Zotovs estate in Lytkarino, Moscow Region. For a long time it was considered to be the Portrait of an Unknown Woman. But during the restoration an inscription was discovered on the canvas, ‘Margarita Frantsevna Zotova’. Margarita was born in 1738 in the family of Vice Consul at the French Embassy to Moscow. She was the second wife of Colonel Ivan Zotov. After her husband’s death, Margarita Zotova inhereited Lytkarino. The Zotov family owned the estate until the revolution of 1917.
Portrait of Zotova
Creation period
1780s
Dimensions
71x58 cm
Technique
Canvas on oil
Collection
4
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Fyodor Rokotov
Portrait of Zotova
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Fyodor Rokotov painted this intimate portrait of Margarita Zotova in the 1780s. Margarita got married in 1782, so the painting could not have been made earlier than that. The character is depicted against dark neutral background, but her head is brightly highlighted.
Her features are a little blurred, as if in a haze. She seems to be transpiring from glimmering twilight. Soft, subdued tones and semi-translucent light created the atmosphere of intimacy.
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Rokotov departed from the traditions of the then popular ceremonial portrait and created an intimate portrait for Zotova. In the spirit of the new genre, he painted the model chest-high. The painter refrained from depicting opulent accessories and rich interior and used a very simple composition. The focus is on the character’s face. Margarita’s hair is done in a pouffe following the fashion of the time.
Her face is made up — 18th century ladies put on rouge and white, dyed their eyebrows and powdered their wigs. The lady is wearing a stylish turquoise corseted dress. Her waist is tightly wrapped by the bodice. Fyodor Rokotov sought to emphasize not only the model’s outer features but also inner traits. Margarita Zotova looks kind-hearted and open in the painting.
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Fyodor Rokotov was born in Moscow to a family of peasants bonded to Prince Petr Repnin. Historians believe that he was the Prince’s illegitimate son, formally a peasant but raised in his master’s home and educated like a nobleman. Nothing is known about the early period of his creative work. In 1755, Count Petr Shuvalov, founder of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, came to Moscow.
He was looking for gifted young men to be sent to his academic institution. The Count noted Fyodor Rokotov and suggested that the young artist move to St. Petersburg. Rokotov agreed. He graduated from the Academy and began receiving his first commissions to paint. The talented artist became known to the court. Fyodor Rokotov painted Peter III and Paul I. In 1765, the artist was awarded full membership of the Academy.
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New Jerusalem Museum
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Portrait of Zotova
Creation period
1780s
Dimensions
71x58 cm
Technique
Canvas on oil
Collection
4
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