Vasily Tropinin. Portrait of Alexander Mikhailovich Golitsyn

A portrait of the 1820s by Vasily Tropinin (1780–1857), a Moscow portraitist of the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I. The artist's life was unusual: he was born a serf and only in May 1823, at the age of 43, did he receive his freedom from Count Irakly Morkov. That same year the Academy of Arts made him an honorary free associate, and in 1824 an academician.

Golitsyn, a middle-aged man, sits in an armchair with his right hand resting on its back; his body is turned almost frontally, his head to the left. He has lively brown eyes, an aquiline nose, a half-smile on his full lips, and short hair revealing a high forehead. He wears a dark blue double-breasted frock coat, a white waistcoat and a white neckcloth; a red order ribbon shows beneath the coat, and two order stars are on his chest. The background is a dark, stormy sky and a green band of trees. The portrait is painted with free, dense brushstrokes. Oil on canvas.