Portrait of Life Guard Colonel Yevgraf Davydov

Colonel Yevgraf Davydov of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment was painted by Kiprensky in 1809, and this canvas is one of the most celebrated military portraits in Russian Romantic painting. Davydov belonged to the same celebrated family as the poet and guerrilla hero Denis Davydov, and the portrait captures the proud, martial bearing of the Russian officer class in the years leading up to the Napoleonic invasion of 1812. The hussar uniform — brilliant red with gold braid, the dolman (fur-trimmed jacket) thrown over one shoulder — is depicted with extraordinary costume detail, yet Kiprensky transforms what could have been a purely ceremonial record into a genuinely Romantic image through the sitter's direct, challenging gaze. The Russian Museum regards this as one of Kiprensky's masterworks, a defining image of Russia's early Romantic period.

A showpiece of Kiprensky's technical command, with the brilliant red and gold of the hussar uniform rendered in rich impasto while the background is handled in thinly applied neutrals. The sitter's pale face is modelled with sculptural precision, the high contrast between it and the dark background giving the portrait theatrical intensity. The fur trim on the dolman is depicted with convincing tactile specificity.