Jean-Baptiste Le Prince

Le Prince lived in Russia between 1758 and 1763, based in St. Petersburg, but travelling extensively throughout the country and to its more exotic regions.  This provided him with much material for his paintings and drawings when he returned to France, and fed the taste for russeries among collectors.  He published prints and etchings after his drawings, and he provided the illustrations for the Abbé Chappe d'Autreroche's Voyage en Sibérie, 1768.  This very attractive drawing was probably made in France, based on sketches done in Russia, but is a strongly individual characterization of the young woman and is more than just a costume study.  Another similar single figure of a Russian woman, in black chalk but heightened with watercolor, is in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh.¹

The posthumous sale of the contents of Le Prince's studio (Paris, J.P.B. LeBrun, 28 November 1781) contained many drawings with Russian subjects, as well as sketchbooks made during his travels.

1.  France in the Eighteenth Century, exhib. cat., London, Royal Academy 1968, no. 438, fig. 214