Painting Detail
Portrait of Countess Olga ShuvalovaArtist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 130x97 cm
Date: 1858
Genre: Portrait
Source: Shuvalov House Museum, Leningrad, 1925
Winterhalter, court painter to Louis-Philippe and Napeoleon III of France, gained particular fame during the Second Empire, working exclusively for the highest ranks of European aristocracy. In one of the Hermitage's several portraits by Winterhalter, we see Countess Olga Esperova Shuvalova, nee Princess Beloselskaya-Belozerskaya, wife of Pyotr Shuvalov, Adjutant-General and Chef of the Corps de Gendarmes. Her fragile figure literally drowns in the cascading luxuriant folds of her elegant attire. Although the artist had no interest in revealing his sitters' character or emotions, in the severe features of Shuvalova's thoughtful face we can see the reserve of a member of one of the oldest families in Russia.