Family Portrait Of Duchess Adèle Ozarowska

Signature Left Under
Original Frame

The present work depicts the family of the owner of a porcelain factory in St. Petersburg. The back of the (possibly original) frame bears a hand-written label listing the family members, including "Adele, Gräfin Ozarowska" (born Matthiessen), which is likely the girl seated at the front in the white dress, who later married into the aristocratic Ozarowski family.

Georg von Bothmann (Russian: Egor Botman) was a German portrait painter at the Imperial Russian Court in St. Petersburg.
For his portrait of Tsar Nicholas I, he received the title of "Imperial Russian Court Painter" and became a member of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He painted portraits of Russian tsars Nicholas I and Alexander II, as well as members of the nobility, admirals and military officers. His paintings are in the Hermitage, the Naval Museum, and the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. His grave is located in the Old Annen Cemetery in Dresden.

Whilst several art encyclopedias have previously assumed that Bothmann moved to Russia in 1846, the fact that the present work is dated 1845 proves that he arrived at least a full year earlier. When in Russia, Bothmann painted portraits of Tsars Nicholas I and Alexander II.