Jean Henri Benner. Portrait of Empress Catherine II

The engraved portrait "Her Majesty Empress Catherine II" belongs to the "Collection of 24 Portraits of the Imperial Family". The sheet was printed in St Petersburg in the first quarter of the 19th century after an original by the artist Benner.

Jean Henri Benner was a French miniaturist, a pupil of Jean-Baptiste Isabey, who worked in Russia for many years. Soon after moving to St Petersburg, around 1816, he began a series of 24 miniatures depicting prominent members of the Romanov dynasty from the early 17th century onward. It is known as the "Romanov Suite"; according to some accounts, the idea came from Prince Alexei Borisovich Lobanov-Rostovsky. Benner made several sets of the miniatures, which are now kept in the Hermitage, Pavlovsk and the Russian Museum.

Engravings were made after the miniatures and published in albums from 1817 onward. In this way, portraits of the imperial family became available far beyond the palaces.