Nikolai Argunov. Portrait of an Unknown Woman

A portrait of the 1810s by Nikolai Argunov (1771–1828), son and pupil of the painter Ivan Argunov, from a well-known dynasty of painters and architects. Nikolai Argunov was a serf of N. P. Sheremetev. After his owner's death in 1809, the heir's guardians let the household artists go to earn their own living; Argunov received formal freedom in 1816 and in 1818 became an academician of the Academy of Arts. The portrait belongs precisely to these years.

The woman is shown below the waist, in three-quarter view turned to the right. She wears a white dress tied with a ribbon under the bust, a ruche of sheer fabric around her neck, and a red shawl thrown over the dress and slipping off her right shoulder. The artist does not flatter his sitter: she has a large nose and a small mouth, but her eyes are thoughtful and expressive. Her short hair is parted and curled at the ends. The dark brownish-grey background is lightened to the right of the head, and the paint layer is dense and smooth. Oil on canvas.