Alexander Roslin: Portrait of Grand Duchess Maria Feodorovna (1777)

(State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia)

This beautiful portrait by the Swedish portrait painter Alexander Roslin shows the second wife of Tsar Paul I of Russia (reign 1796-1801). She was born as Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg, daugher of Duke Frederick II Eugene of Württemberg, but changed her name to Maria Feodorovna when she married the Tsar in 1776. She was the mother of the future Tsar Alexander I (reign 1801-1825) and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia (reign 1825-1855). Painting from 1777.