Übersetzen...
Automatische Übersetzung:
Countess Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff (Maria Ivanovna Beck, 1835-1866). Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, Menzenschwand 1805-1873 Frankfurt). Dimensions: 57 1/4 x 45 1/4 in. (145.4 x 114.9 cm). Date: 1859.
Although trained in Germany, Winterhalter spent most of his adult life in Paris, where he became a favorite portraitist of European aristocrats. In 1841 alone, his sitters included the king and queen of Belgium; King Louis-Philippe of France; and Queen Maria Cristina of Spain. The following year, he added Marie-Amélie, queen of France, and Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of England to his roster of royal models.
The twenty-four-year-old countess depicted here was the wife of Alexander Nikolaevitch Lamsdorff, a Russian aristocrat and Francophile. The book of English poetry in her lap is thought to be a reference to her father, Ivan Alexandrovitch Beck, a poet and translator. Her choice of a fashionable day dress may have been suggested by Winterhalter, who is known to have advised his sitters on their wardrobe and posed them to their best advantage in his studio.