Mikhail Shibanov painted this portrait of Catherine the Great in April 1787. when the Russian Empress visited Kiev. The image of Catherine in travelling costume was a new iconographic type, clearly painted from life. No one knows what prompted a little-known artist to depict the Empress as an elderly woman with strands of grey hair tumbling down from beneath her hat. Most surprising of all is the fact that Catherine even ordered copies to be made of the portrait.