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Princess Anna B. Belosselsky-Belozersky née Kozitsky

about 1773–1846

Medium/Technique Oil on canvas
Dimensions 24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Credit Line Gift of Tatiana Belosselsky Bezamat in memory of her father Serge Belosselsky
Accession Number2009.348
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings

ProvenanceProbably passed by descent through the family of the sitter to Princess Elena Pavlovna Kochubey Belosselsky-Belozersky (b. 1812- d. 1888), St. Petersburg [see note 1]; by 1902, to her son, Prince Constantin Esperovich Belosselsky-Belozersky (b. 1843 – d. 1920), St. Petersburg [see note 2]; June 17, 1921, posthumous Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 4, sold for fr. 500 [see note 3]; probably bought in or bought back by the family and passed by descent to Serge Belosselsky, New York; 1978, by inheritance to his daughter, Tatiana Belosselsky Bezamat, Ipswich, MA; 2009, gift of Tatiana Belosselsky Bezamat to the MFA. (Accession Date: March 25, 2009).

NOTES:
[1] She lent the painting to the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (St. Petersburg, 1870), cat. mo. 460, where it was exhibited as a portrait of her mother-in-law, Princess Anna Gregorievna Belosselsky-Belozersky, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. See “Каталогъ исторической выставки портретовъ лицъ XVI-XVIII вв., устроенной Обществом поощренiя художниковъ,” [Catalog of the Historical Exhibition of Portraits from the 16th-17th Centuries, Organized by the Society for the Encouragement of Artists] ed. P[yotr] N[ikolayevich] Petrov, 2nd ed., Saint Petersburg, 1870, p. 130.
[2] He lent it to the Society of the Blue Cross, St. Petersburg, in 1902 as a portrait of Princess Anna Gregorievna Belosselsky-Belozersky by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. See “Подробный иллюстрированный каталогъ выставки русской портретной живописи за 150 лѣтъ (1700-1850),” [Detailed and Illustrated Exhibition Catalog of Russian Portrait Painting over 150 Years (1700-1850)] ed. Baron N[ikolay] Wrangel, Saint Petersburg, 1902, p. 38; and to the Tauride Palace, St. Petersburg, in 1905 as a portrait of Baroness Natalia Mikhailovna Stroganoff. See “Каталогъ состоящей подъ Высочайшимъ Его Императорскаго Величества Государя Императора покровительствомъ историко-художественной выставки русскихъ портретовъ, устраиваемой въ Таврическомъ дворцѣ, въ пользу вдовъ и сиротъ павшихъ въ бою воиновъ” [Catalog of the Historical and Artistic Exhibition of Russian Portraits Held under the Patronage of His Imperial Majesty the Sovereign Emperor in the Tauride Palace, in favor of the Widows and Orphans of Soldiers Who Fell in Battle]. Ed. By Sergei [Pavlovich] Diaghilev, vol. III, 1905, cat. no. 549.
The painting was published as a portrait of Princess Anna Gregorievna Belosselsky-Belozersky in Русскіе портреты XVIII и XIX столѣтій / Portraits russes des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, ed. Nikolay Mikhailovich Romanoff, vol. III, fasc. 2 (Saint Petersburg, 1907), cat. no. 43. In 1908, an erratum slip was issued, changing the identification of the sitter to Baroness Natalia Mikhailovna Stroganoff (Portraits russes des XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, vol. IV, fasc. 2, erratum slip).
[3] Sold as a portrait of Princess Anna Grigoriewna Bilosselsky; see “Revue des ventes. Objects d’art et de Bel ameublement anciens,” Le Journal des Arts, June 22, 1921, p. 2.

Many thanks to Ólafur Thorvaldsson for his assistance in researching this painting.