# Portrait of Catherine II before a Mirror [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ERIKSEN, Vigilius]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 265 x 203 cm ## Commentary Portrait of Catherine II before a Mirror 1762 Oil on canvas, 265 x 203 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg This Danish artist, who worked at the Russian court between 1757 and 1772, produced some 30 portraits of Catherine II with different programs, compositions, and purposes. He was the first in Russia to use this type of portrait with a mirror, making it possible to show the two sides of the subject's character - the imperious monarch and the sensitive woman. ## Related artworks - [Dowager Queen Juliane Marie of Denmark]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()