On the basis of style, this miniature has been attributed to the Russian court miniaturist Ivan Winberg, who produced a prolific group of miniatures of Alexander II's predecessor, Nicholas I.

Ivan Winberg was the son of the Swedish goldsmith, Andreas Winberg (1756–after 1827), who had settled in St Petersburg in 1791. Ivan became professor of miniature painting at the Russian Academy in 1846. Though the composition of this portrait miniature is similar to a work by the Austrian miniaturist, Robert Theer (1808–63), painted in 1839, Winberg’s portrait is painted in a loose, expressive manner. The star of the Order of St Andrew pinned to his breast and the sash are picked out in rapid white and blue gouache strokes. The miniature is presented in a later oval-format gilded Hatfield frame.

Alexander II, Emperor of Russia, was the eldest son of Emperor Nicholas I and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. He married Marie, Princess of Hesse, in 1841, by whom he had eight children. In 1880, after the death of his first wife, he entered a morganatic marriage with his mistress, Catherine Dolgorukova, later Princess Yurevskaia (1847–1922). Perhaps the Emperor’s greatest legacy was the reformism of his reign, which saw the emancipation of Russia’s serf population in 1861. In 1881, after inspecting a roll call at the Mikhailovsky Manège (riding academy) in St Petersburg, the Emperor was assassinated by members of the People’s Will movement.

Text adapted from Russia: Art, Royalty, and the Romanovs, London, 2018.