Lot 117: Augustin Ritt , 1765-1799 Portrait of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, afterwards Alexander I, Emperor of all the Russias (1777-1825)

wearing a dark coat and white cravat, with the sash of the Order of St. Andrew and the badge of the Order of St. Alexander-Nevsky, silver-gilt frame set with cultured pearls and garnets signed l.r.: Ritt., circa 1793

5.2 cm.; 2 1/16 in. diam.

Leisching 1898, pp. 137/8;
Komelova 2004, p. 49

Graf Karl Lanckoronski-Brzezie;
Ernst Holzscheiter, his sale in these Rooms, 28 March 1977, lot 181

In a list of his work Augustin Ritt recorded that he painted two portraits of Grand Duke Alexander Pavlovich, in 1792 and 1793. Galina Komelova (see literature) linked these cited portraits, signed but undated, to miniatures in the Russian Museum and ex-Brewster collection (respectively Komelova 2004, cat. nos. 1, 2, figs. 12, 13, the latter sold in these Rooms, 14 December 1995, lot 60). She also noted the existence of an untraced third portrait of the Grand Duke by Ritt, which was recorded as being in the collection of Graf Karl Lanckoronski-Brzezie in 1898 (Leisching, see literature). The present lot is that miniature. All three miniatures show the Grand Duke from the same angle, however, in the oval-shaped Brewster version more of his buttoned coat is shown.