Christina Robertson (1796 -1856 ) Miniature Portrait Of Russian Emperor Nikolai I

Exceptional miniature portrait of Russian Emperor Nikolai I (1796-1855) in parade uniform, against the backdrop of a military stronghold during the Russo-Turkish Crimean War. The miniature was executed in 1855-1856 by Scottish miniature and portrait painter Christina Robertson after the oil portrait of Nikolai I by Egor (Georg) Botman (1810 Lubeck - 1891 Dresden), now in the Hermitage , St. Petersburg (see last image). Christina Robertson née Saunders, in Russian Кристина Робертсон (1796 in Kinghorn, County Fife, Scotland -1856 in St Petersburg) was a Scottish portrait painter and later court painter to the Imperial Russian court. Various information is given about the dates of the artist's life in known literature. According to Wikipedia, the years are 1796 - 1854. We have nevertheless come to the conclusion that the correct dates (1775-1856) are given in the register of important Saur artist lexicons. In our opinion, this miniature was painted by her in the same years 1855-1856 as the original portrait of the emperor by Egor Botman. Christina Robertson came to Saint Petersburg in 1839, where she received numerous commissions from the Tsar's court to replace paintings destroyed in the fire of the Winter Palace in 1837 and to paint portraits of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna and his three daughters Maria, Olga and Alexandra. . His portrait of the Tsarina was transferred to lithography by Valentin Schertle. Robertson was in Saint Petersburg until 1841 and was made an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Arts the same year. In 1847 Robertson returned to St. Petersburg. In January 1849, she was again invited to the Winter Palace to paint portraits of the daughters-in-law of Nicholas I - Maria Alexandrovna and Alexandra Iosifovna. During the last years of her life, she was unable to return to England for lack of money. His death in the last year of the Crimean War, when the majority of the British colony of St. Petersburg left Russia, went unnoticed. The artist was buried in the Volkovo cemetery.

Literature: “General Artist´s Lexicon” by Thieme/Becker, Leipzig, 1999; Register of the General Lexicon of the Artist by Saur; Women in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Lives and Culture / edited by Wendy Rosslyn and Alessandra Tosi. Cambridge, 2012.
Inscription: signed lower right.
Technique: gouache on ivory in a richly decorated brass and wood frame, partly carved, 1st half of the 19th century.
Dimensions: picture w 3 1/2" xh 4 3/4" (9 x 12 cm), framed w 7 7/8" x h 9 1/2" (20 x 24 cm).
Condition: in very good condition.