Vigée‑Le Brun was primarily self‑taught, as women were not allowed to attend France’s official art schools. She went on to achieve great fame for her portraits of the French aristocracy and gained admission to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture through the support of her chief patron, Queen Marie Antoinette. When the French Revolution began in 1789, Vigée‑Le Brun fled France and spent thirteen years in exile, painting the nobility of Naples, Austria, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland. Some scholars think that the charming young woman in this portrait may be Countess Irina Ivanovna Worontzov, a Russian aristocrat.

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