Lot 10: ALOIS GUSTAV ROCKSTUHL, 1798-1877

A FINE PORTRAIT MINIATURE OF CATHERINE THE GREAT AFTER THE 1793 ORIGINAL BY JOHANN BAPTIST LAMPI

18 by 14.5cm., 7 by 5 3/4 in.

signed in Latin m.r. and dated 1865

oil on ivory partially reinforced with copper

NOTE

Alois Gustav Rockstuhl, the son of miniature painter Peter Ernst Rockstuhl, was born near Vilnius in 1798. From 1832 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg and in 1843 he was appointed miniature painter to the Russian Imperial Court. The offered lot is a particularly fine example of his mature work, proudly signed Le Professeur Rockstuhl. Painted after the full-length portrait of by Jean Baptiste Lampi in the Hermitage collection. Catherine the Great is depicted wearing the light-blue ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew, the striped ribbon, orange with black, of the Order of St. George established by Catherine in 1769 and the red with black edge ribbon of the Order of St. Vladimir.
Rockstuhl successfully transports the grandeur and commanding presence conveyed in the original into the miniature format.