Porträt der O. A. Ryumina (1807-1865)

Kiprensky's 1826 portrait of O.A. Ryumina, now in the Russian Museum, depicts a subject born in 1807 who would have been approximately nineteen at the time of the portrait. The Ryumin family were wealthy Russian merchants and patrons, and the portrait of a young woman of this family represents the extension of Kiprensky's clientele beyond the aristocracy and military to include the prosperous mercantile class whose cultural ambitions were making them significant figures in early nineteenth-century Russian art patronage. The portrait belongs to the same year as the Filosofov portrait in Yerevan, a year that found Kiprensky actively working in Russia before his return to Italy. The Russian Museum holds the definitive collection of his Russian-period works, and this portrait contributes to the picture of his diverse practice across classes and genders.

Oil on canvas, the portrait of a young woman allows Kiprensky to deploy the warm, luminous flesh-tone handling that he had developed as his characteristic approach to female subjects. The three-quarter composition, soft directional lighting, and careful rendering of dress and accessories are consistent with the conventions of Russian female portraiture of the period while retaining the individual character that distinguished Kiprensky's best work.