Alexander Roslin. Portrait of Ivan Betskoy

Ivan Ivanovich Betskoy was one of the prominent figures of the age of Catherine II (the Great): the Empress's personal secretary, President of the Academy of Arts from 1763 to 1794, and the initiator of the Smolny Institute and the Foundling Homes in Moscow and St Petersburg. His portrait was painted by the Swedish artist Alexander Roslin, one of the best-known portraitists of the Rococo era, who worked in Russia in the 1770s.

Betskoy sits in an armchair with his legs crossed, leaning his left hand on a table; in his right hand he holds the end of a plan lying on the table. He wears a blue satin dressing gown with light green lapels and lining, a light green waistcoat, a white lace jabot and cuffs, orange culottes and a short powdered wig. The face is carefully painted, with an open forehead and grey eyes.

The scene is set in a study: the background is a dark bluish-grey screen concealing a library, and a book and a clock lie on the carved table. Oil on canvas. In the museum's collection, Roslin's portraits represent the genre of the semi-formal, representative portrait.