Portrait of Countess Yelizaveta K. Vorontsova (1792-1880)

The portrait of Yelizaveta Vorontsova was painted by the well-known artist George Hayter in England, in 1832, where Vorontsova came to visit her father-in-law, Count Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, whose health was declining. Shortly before that, Hayter had returned from Paris, where he did portraits of the nobility. It was there that he executed the portrait of Countess Sofia Stanislavovna Kiseleva, née Countess Pototskaya. Probably she referenced the artist to her acquaintance, Y.K.Vorontsova. Yelizaveta K. Vorontsova (1792-1880), née Countess Branitskaya (Branicka), who, from 1819, was the wife of Count Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, a military leader and a statesman. While her husband served as the viceroy of the Caucasus, Yelizaveta Vorontsova was actively engaged in charity work and also patronized education. Judging from her contemporaries’ accounts, she was one of the most charismatic women of her time. Alexander Pushking, who was well acquainted with the countess, devoted some of his fine poems to her.