Vladimir BOROVIKOVSKI Myrhorod, 1757 - Saint Petersburg, 1825 Portrait of Madame Nadezhda Ilyinichna Lvova, née Berezina, holding a book Oil on copper In a chased ormolu frame decorated with acanthus leaves and rows of pearls Portrait of Madame Nadezhda Ilyinichna Lvova, oil on copper, by V. Borovikovski 10.50 x 9 cm (4.13 x 3.54 in.) Comment: Called to Saint Petersburg in 1787 by Catherine II, the Ukrainian portrait painter Borovikovsky, who had trained with Dimitri Levitsky and Giovanni Lampi, was admitted to the Saint Petersburg Academy in 1795. The decade of 1790, during which our miniature was produced, marked the peak of the painter's career. An oil on canvas in the Russian Museum in St Petersburg, also depicting Nadezhda Ilyinichna Lvova, painted in the early 1790s, has enabled us to identify the model for our miniature1. 1 Tatiana Vasilevna Alexeieva, Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky and Russian culture at the turn of the century, Moscow, 1975, no. 80 (in Russian).