Pietro Rotari. Girl in a Red Bodice

This bust-length portrait of a girl in a red bodice is one of the "heads" by the Italian painter Pietro Antonio Rotari. Her figure and head are turned three-quarters to the right. The red bodice is worn over a shirt of light fabric with a floral pattern, a stand-up collar and golden cords; on her head is a white kerchief with blue stripes, and the background is dark and neutral.

Rotari (1707–1762) was born in Verona, and in 1756 he came to St Petersburg and became court painter to Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. He was in demand for his portraits and the so-called "heads", small images of girls. Catherine II placed them in a hall of the Peterhof Palace that became known as the "Cabinet of Fashions and Graces".

Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov assembled a series of 33 female portraits by Rotari, and at his estate the "heads" filled an entire room, the "Rotari Cabinet". Oil on canvas, 18th century.