English School

Portrait of Tsar Peter the Great as the Grand Czar of Muscovy, c. 1698

Footnotes

Provenance
Possibly Christie's, London, 17 July 1807, lot 28 (sold by Mallough to Seguier for three pounds) – 'Czar Peter by Rembrandt'.

This rare image is connected to Tsar Peter's stay in London during his Grand Embassy of 1698. Furthermore, it relates directly to several engravings of the Tsar made during Peter's visit by the likes of Robert White, William Faithorne and Jacob Gole.
Although only Godfrey Kneller's portrait in the Royal Collection is the only official image made of the Tsar during his visit to London, it seems that the appearance of the Russian ruler was captured in another unofficial image. Unlike Kneller's highly westernised depiction, this rare depiction shows the Tsar in the traditional guise of a Muscovite Tsar bedecked in opulent furs, diamonds and a gold threaded cloak. The exotic appearance of the Tsar in traditional Russian dress caught the imagination of Londoners and resulted in the demand for popular images such as this one.
Both scholars Anthony Cross (2000) and Dmitrii Rovinskii (1888) were unaware of a surviving painting connected to the aforementioned engravings. Notably, Faithorne's version showing the Tsar in his robes and fur hat bears the inscription that it was 'Drawing by the life Since his Imperial Majesty Came into England'. Rovinskii had connected the engravings to a reworking of Kneller's portrait, however, the reappearance of this painted portrait adds further complexity to this suggestion.
Pigment analysis favours a dating to c. 1698 and has identified no later synthetic materials dating from post 1715. Furthermore, the blue pigment in the Tsar's jacket is comprised of the costly natural ultramarine (lapis lazuli).