Portrait of Count Andrey Bezborodko

Portrait of Count Andrey Bezborodko is the only early 19th-century official male portrait in the Hermitage. Count Bezborodko (1780s -c. 1855) is shown walking in the bosom of nature wearing high boots and a riding costume. His figure in this large canvas is almost life-size and looks monumental against the low horizon of the landscape in the background. The two trees to the right, which seem to gently intertwine, echo Bezborodko's legs and emphasize the vertical format. The naturalistic treatment of the face and details of clothing, the landscape which serves as a decorative background, and the strictly balanced composition reveal the artist's Neoclassical tendencies.