Terms and conditions of use
Count Andrey Kyrillovich Razumovsky
1776
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
63.8 × 52.7 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Everard Studley Miller Bequest, 1962
Gallery location
17th & 18th Century Decorative Arts & Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
The Swedish painter and pastellist Alexander Roslin established himself with great success in Paris in 1752, where he became a close friend of François Boucher. Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky was the son of the Grand Marshall of Russia and a childhood friend of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, the Russian royal heir. A gifted violinist and future diplomat, Razumovsky was described in the 1770s as ‘surpassing in brilliance and elegance all others of his age’, but was banished from the Russian court in 1776 on account of an amorous intrigue. This portrait is believed to have been executed during Roslin’s visit to St Petersburg in 1775–77.
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in black paint c.r.: le Chev: Roslin. / 1776.
Accession Number
1382-5
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Portraits
Subjects (specific)
blue (colour) counts (noblemen) cravats half figures lace (needlework) men (male humans) orange (colour)
Provenance
Commissioned by Count Andrey Kyrillovich Razumovsky (1752–1836) in 1776, and kept in the Palais Razumovksy, Vienna until c. 1836; collection of Maria Vasileyvna Vassiltchikova (1779–1844); collection of Prince Victor Pavlovich Kotchoubey (1768–1834) and Princess Maria (née Vassiltchikova, see above), Dikanka, Ukraine and thence by descent until the Russian Revolution; exhibited Historical and Art Exhibition of Russian portraits, Tauride Palace, St Petersburg, 1905, no. 759; sold at public auction, Paris, c. 1924 (details unknown); recorded by Lundberg in Thieme-Becker in 1935 as being in a Russian private collection, France[1]; probably collection of Alvan Tufts Fuller (1878–1958), Boston, Massachusetts, before 1958; thence to the Fuller Foundation, Inc., 1958–61; loaned to Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, October 1959 – July 1961[2]; included in the sale Fine Pictures by Old and Modern Masters: The Property of the Fuller Foundation Inc., Christie's, London, 1 December, 1961, no. 81 as Portrait of a Gentleman; purchased by Thomas Agnew & Sons (dealer), London, 1961; from where purchased, on the advice of Dr Mary Woodall, under the terms of the Everard Studley Miller Bequest, 1962.
[1] Thieme-Becker, 1935, Kunstler Lexikon, vol. XXIX. This painting was the subject of an advertising supplement. See Daria Olivier, Roslin, ‘Painter to the 'Young Court' of Russia (1775-7) (Concerning a Portrait of Count Andrew Razoumovsky)’ in The Burlington Magazine, vol. 104, no. 710 (May, 1962), pp. i-iii. The provenance published here lists the painting in France in 1924, and subsequently sold at auction. The next owner is listed as ‘private collection, Boston’ which presumably refers to Fuller.
[2] Label on reverse of painting (no. TL 10,703) for inward loan to Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston. Email correspondence with Victoria Reed, Monica S. Sadler Assistant Curator for Provenance, MFA, Boston, 14 October 2009, NGV files.