In the “Inventory” of the collection of the Museum of the Academy of Arts completed by Golovachevsky in1773, the painting is listed as one of the “paintings received from the palace in 1762,” but the work was mistakenly referred to as a portrait of Tsesarevna Anna Petrovna (no artist’s name mentioned). The person depicted in the portrait was recently identified. Recent research established that the painted was created by Caravaque, who painted two portraits of Tsarevna Natalia Petrovna in 1721.

Natalia Petrovna (August 20, 1718 – March 4, 1725)
Tsarevna, last child born to Peter the Great and Catherine Alexeyevna. Became Tsesarevna in 1721. She was buried on the same day as her father in the Peter and Paul Cathedral of the Peter and Paul Fortress, St Petersburg.

Caravaque Louis

Caravaque, Louis
1684, Marseilles – 1754, St Petersburg
Painter, portraitist, designer, miniaturist, graphic artist. Member of the third generation of French painters working in Marseilles and Tulon. Invited to Russia by Peter the Great (1715). Lived and worked in St Petersburg (from 1716). Painted portraits of Peter the Great and members of the Imperial family. Painted murals and headed painting work in Peterhof and in the Summer Palace in St Petersburg. Compiled festival projects for the Imperial court. Court artist with an exclusive right to paint Imperial portraits during the reign of Empress Anna Ioannovna (1730–1740) and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna (1741–1761). Taught painting to Ivan Vishnyakov, Alexei Antropov and Mikhail Zakharov.