Portrait of Catherine II of Russia in red dress.

Levitzky painted Catherine II in a red dress around 1782, one of several portraits he made of the empress across his career, each responding to different aspects of her self-projection. The Warsaw National Museum's holding of this canvas — like other Russian imperial portraits that migrated to Poland through the long entanglement of the two empires — represents one variant in the complex iconographic project that Catherine II managed with the precision of a modern brand: she coordinated her painted likenesses across multiple artists to ensure that court portraiture consistently expressed the image of a Europeanized, philosophically enlightened, yet unmistakably authoritative sovereign. The red dress variant is less common than the allegorical robes of justice that Levitzky also painted; it suggests a less ceremonial register, possibly intended for private rather than official settings, while the formal pose and the dominant crimson signal unambiguous authority.

Oil on canvas with the red dress presenting one of the technical challenges characteristic of this pigment — achieving richness in the shadows without tipping into muddiness, and maintaining surface vibrancy in the lights. Levitzky manages the crimson through careful glazing, building depth in the fold shadows and adding a final scumble of slightly lighter warm tone in the lights.