The “Inventory of the Imperial Hermitage” published in 1913 mentions a “shoulder-length portrait [of Elizabeth], which was painted when she was a tsesarevna, uncompleted.” New research established that the portrait is a study to the portrait by Louis Caravaque that was acquired by the State Hermitage and is dated 1724.

Elizabeth Petrovna (December 18, 1709 – December 25, 1761)
Tsarevna, daughter of Peter the Great and Catherine Alexeyevna, awarded the title of Tsesarevna on December 23, 1721. Became Empress on November 25, 1741. Crowned on 25 April, 1742.

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.