Ivan Loktev. Portrait of a Young Man, Probably Fyodor Orlov

This half-length portrait is the work of Ivan Loktev, a pupil of Fyodor Rokotov. According to the New Jerusalem Museum, only two portraits by this artist are known in Russia. The picture was probably painted in the first half of the 1760s.

The sitter is apparently Count Fyodor Grigoryevich Orlov (1741–1796), one of the famous Orlov brothers, who took part in preparing the palace coup of 1762; the catalogue also gives another, equally tentative identification. The young man looks at the viewer calmly, slightly from above. He wears a green cloth caftan with a black collar, a green camisole, a white lace jabot and a white neckerchief; his left hand is tucked into the camisole, and his ash-coloured curled hair is tied at the back with a black bow.

The background is dark, slightly lightened on the right, with the red ground showing through. The caftan is painted with long, free brushstrokes, and a zigzag stroke can be seen on the face. Oil on canvas.