Portrait of Countess A.S. Protasova with her Nieces

The work is an oil painting on canvas, executed in 1788 in Rome, reflecting Angelica Kauffmann’s neoclassical style and her use of delicate brushwork to render texture and drapery. The composition features three young women seated on a stone bench within a park, arranged in a balanced triangular formation that emphasizes both intimacy and hierarchy. Kauffmann softened the sitter’s features, idealizing Anna Protasova while preserving aristocratic poise, a technique documented in her correspondence about the commission.

The painting’s handling of light and muted palette aligns with 18th‑century Russian portrait conventions, and its condition remains stable, with no recorded restoration noted in the Hermitage inventory.

The work was painted in Rome in 1788 at the request of Prince Nikolai Yusupov, who supplied six sketches for the group portrait; the exact commissioning purpose remains uncertain. The painting entered the Hermitage collection by 1797, as recorded in an inventory, and has remained in that museum's possession since its acquisition. It measures 123 cm by 159 cm and is executed in oil on canvas, depicting Anna Stepanovna Protasova with her nieces.

Contemporary accounts note that Kauffmann idealised the sitter’s appearance, and a related engraving after James Walker was published on 1 January 1792.

Portrait of Countess A.S. Protasova with her Nieces is held in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Its inventory number is listed in the 1797 Hermitage catalogue, confirming its presence in the museum’s collection by that year. The work was painted in Rome in 1788 on commission from Prince Nikolai Yusupov, who provided six sketches for the group portrait.

It entered the Hermitage shortly thereafter, becoming part of the museum’s early acquisitions. A 1792 engraving after James Walker was produced from the painting, documenting its public visibility shortly after its arrival. The work remains on display in the Hermitage’s portrait gallery, reflecting its longstanding exhibition history within the institution.

Painted in Rome in 1788, the group portrait belongs to Angelica Kauffmann's mature neoclassical output, produced during her long career as a history painter and portraitist working in the international circuit of Grand Tour patrons. The commission came from Prince Nikolai Yusupov, who sent Kauffmann six preparatory sketches, as she herself recorded in her "Journal of Orders"; it remains unclear whether Yusupov acted for himself or on behalf of Empress Catherine II. The painting entered the Hermitage collection by 1797, where it was catalogued in the imperial inventory of that year, and a James Walker engraving after the portrait was issued in early 1792.

The work has been treated in standard catalogues of the Hermitage's Germanic holdings, notably Nikouline's survey of German and Austrian painting of the fifteenth through eighteenth centuries in the museum, and in Rovinsky's detailed dictionary of engraved Russian portraits. A 2011 Hermitage exhibition catalogue, "Painting and Sculpture in Rome in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century," also includes the painting, situating it within the broader Roman neoclassical milieu in which Kauffmann worked.

Angelica Kauffmann’s oil painting, completed in 1794, portrays Countess Alexandra Sergeyevna Protasova together with her nieces in an outdoor setting. The work is part of the State Hermitage Museum’s collection and exemplifies the artist’s late‑career portraiture, combining a leisurely park backdrop with a composed, intimate grouping of figures.