Seventeen-year-old Natalya Talyzina is depicted in an interior that has a modest and neutral color palette. This allows the painting to draw all attention of its viewers to the face and frame of the girl. Her semi-sheer lace evening dress is slightly lowered at the shoulders, with its ruffles falling down. The dress reveals a thin curve of the neck and graceful round shoulders, while the girl’s high hairstyle emphasizes the delicate oval of her face. Slightly tilted in thought, her head is supported by one arm, which is adorned with thin bracelets. The image created by the artist catches the eye with its cordiality and warmth. Perhaps, this blissful and thoughtful look is caused by the girl’s thoughts of her upcoming marriage: Natalya Alexandrovna got married the following year after this portrait was created.

Carl Yakovlevich (Christian Philipp) Reichel (1788–1857) was a painter and engraver. He was born in Warsaw, the son of a medalist (a person who fabricates molds for casting and minting coins and medals) Yakov Reichel.

In 1801, Carl Yakovlevich was admitted to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He was awarded the 2nd gold medal in the program ‘Portray a Sculptor Practicing His Work’, and the first gold medal in the program ‘Portray a Priest Explaining the Commandments to Two Young People.’ Upon graduation from the Academy of Arts, Reichel received a first-degree certificate and a honorary sword.

In 1810, the Academy of Arts granted Reichel a pension. The artist used this money to travel abroad and visit Paris and Rome. A year later, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he became a famous portrait artist soon after.

He painted portraits of the poet Pyotr Vyazemsky, musician Mikhail Vielgorsky, artist Fyodor Tolstoy, as well as numerous portraits of members of the St. Petersburg nobility.

In 1819, Reichel left Russia and did not return for many years. Only two decades later did he turn up in Novgorod at the house of his brother Kazimir, who was a railway engineer. While in Novgorod, he met Alexander Herzen; he went on to portray Herzen’s wife in two of his pencil drawing and a painting.

Carl Yakovlevich was married to Sophia Alexeyevna Yushnevskaya, daughter of the Decembrist Alexey Yushnevsky. From 1845 to 1857, Reichel’s family lived in Irkutsk, while he himself went to work in Kyakhta. In Irkutsk, Reichel painted portraits: in particular, in 1846, he made a portrait of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna (wife of Nicholas I) for the Maiden Institute of Eastern Siberia.

It is also known that Reichel painted companion portraits of the Decembrist Sergey Trubetskoy and his wife in 1854. In June 1857, Reichel left Siberia and traveled to Kiev with his daughter Sophia to visit his mother-in-law, wife, and son. From there, this time alone, the artist went to the town of Tulchin in the Bratslav District of the Podolsk Province, where he died at the end of that same year.