15: Russian Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century

Portrait of a Woman

1882

Nikolai Gay

96 x 71 cm

Oil on canvas

The female portraits in the collection of the Department of the History of Russian Culture are amazingly varied: from modest depictions of merchants' wives to high-society beauties, created by both unknown artists and acknowledged masters who earned themselves a permanent place in the history of Russian art. One of the masterpieces of the collection, this work by Nikolai Gay, anticipated many of the achievements of portraiture at the turn of the 20th century.