Portrait of Catherine II on the back of her horse Brilliant

Today we present a painting from the exhibition The Golden Age of Peterhof - From Peter I. to Catherine II which is a joint project of Slovak National Museum - Museum of History in Bratislava and Peterhof State Museum – Reserve. Enjoy!

Vigilius Eriksen is a Danish portrait painter and miniaturist who studied painting in Copenhagen. He spent much of his professional life in Denmark, but his creative career flourished between 1757 and 1772, when he arrived in Saint Petersburg. At this time, the painter created numerous portraits of Empress Catherine II, which depicted her in a variety of costumes, poses, techniques and formats. “Portrait of Catherine II on horse Brilliant” from the painting collection of Oranienbaum is a reduced copy of the original, painted for the Throne Hall of the Grand Peterhof Palace. Eriksen repeatedly recreated the composition commissioned by Catherine II, varying the size of the picture. The Empress is portrayed on horseback of Brilliant on the day of the coup on June 28, 1762. She is wearing the caftan of the Chief Officer of the Life Guards Regiment of the Semenovsky Regiment with the star and ribbon of the Order of St. Andrew the First-Called, which belonged to the lieutenant A.F. Talyzin, in which she led a campaign against Peter III at the head of the Guards regiments that proclaimed her the Empress.