Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Portrait of an Unknown Woman
Ivan Kramskoi · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoi (1837–1887)
- Date
- 1883
- Dimensions
- 75.5 x 99 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
This painting shows an elegant young woman riding in an open carriage through the snowy streets of St Petersburg, dressed in the height of fashion in dark velvet and fur, looking down at the viewer with a cool, enigmatic expression.
A closer look
Her hat is decorated with a white ostrich feather, her coat trimmed with sable and blue satin ribbons, and she holds a fur muff. Behind her, the Anichkov Palace appears faintly through the frosty mist. Her gaze is proud, perhaps slightly disdainful, or perhaps sad; it is impossible to say. Kramskoi never revealed who she was, and critics at the time disagreed about whether she was a respectable lady or a courtesan. The mystery has made the painting one of the most famous Russian portraits, sometimes called the 'Russian Mona Lisa'.