Porträt der Maria Pavlovna Volkonskaia (1816-1854)

The Portrait of Maria Pavlovna Volkonskaia, painted c. 1826 and recorded with a note of her dates (1816–1854), depicts a young woman who would have been around ten years of age when the portrait was made, making this likely the portrait of a child — though it is also possible the date range in the title is erroneous or refers to a different person of the same name. If this is indeed a portrait of a ten-year-old, it would belong to Bryullov's early Italian years, when he produced numerous portraits alongside his genre work. Childhood portraiture in the early nineteenth century required adapting the formal language of adult portraiture for a smaller, more animated subject. If the subject is the Volkonskaia of that generation, she came from one of Russia's most distinguished princely families. The oil paint medium on canvas indicates this is a formal commission rather than a sketch.

An early portrait from Bryullov's Italian formation years would show the warm glazed technique he developed in Rome — rich tonal depth through transparent layers over opaque underpaint. The figure would be posed in three-quarter or frontal arrangement with academic light falling to model the face. Any setting would reflect the early nineteenth-century portrait convention of neutral or domestic background.