Fedor Stepanovich Rokotov

Emperor for just six short months, Peter III’s brief reign makes it possible to date this portrait quite precisely to the first half of 1762. Then still a young man, Rokotov had already established a reputation as one of Russia’s finest portrait painters and been made official painter to the court – an honour bestowed as a result of an earlier portrait he had painted of the Emperor, the then Grand Duke Peter Fedorovich, which was presented to him on his ascension to the throne.

The Emperor wears the highest order of chivalry, the Order of St Andrew the First-Called, patron saint of Russia and is depicted in the uniform of the oldest and most distinguished regiment, that of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards. This regiment also served as body-guard to Peter’s wife Catherine and ironically was to play a significant part in her coup to overthrow him a few months after the portrait was painted, for which she would award it military precedence over all other regiments.

This famously maligned Emperor did however achieve much of note during his brief time on the throne. He effected significant democratic reforms, did much to advance religious freedom in Russia and abolished the secret police formed by Peter the Great (quickly reinstated by Peter III's wife and successor Catherine the Great) making his reign one of the few times when Russian citizens lived free from its shadow.

Peter III is thought to have sat for Rokotov in April of 1762, a sitting which resulted in a number of portraits including one other known version of the present composition now in the collection of the M.Tuganov House-Museum in North Ossetia.