Lot 191: Michele Gordigiani , Italian (Firenze 1835 - 1909) Portrait of Nadezhda Mikhailovna Polovtsova, 1869 oil on canvas

signed M. Gordigiani and dated 1869 (lower left) oil on canvas

measurements 61 by 41 in. alternate measurements 155 by 104 cm

Collection of Nadezhda Mikhailovna Polovtsova (acquired directly from the artist)
Thence by descent

PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE FAMILY COLLECTION
Nadezhda Polovtsova is believed to have been the illegitimate daughter of the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, who was the youngest son of Emperor Paul I and the brother of Tsar Nicholas I. She became the foster child of Baron Aleksandr Stieglitz (1814-1884), a millionaire financier and leading philanthropist for the arts in Russia. Today, Stieglitz is remembered for his crucial role in the advancement of Russian arts education through his founding of the Central School of Technical Drawing in St. Petersburg in 1878 (now known as the Mukhina Institute of Industrial Arts) and the Stieglitz Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts.

Gordigiani's almost life-size portrait of Polovtsova captures its subject's striking resemblance to various members of the Imperial family.