The artist is Serov
Count Sumarokov-Elston Felix Feliksovich (1887–1967), since 1917 Prince Yusupov-son of Count F. F. Sumarokov-Elston, Prince Yusupov, and Princess Z. N. Yusupova, husband of the Grand Duchess Irina Alexandrovna.
For the picturesque execution and “presenting” of a human character, this is one of the most elegant works of Serov in the images of Russian women and men of different layers of society created since the mid-1880s of the impressive gallery of the images of Russian women. In the guise of a sixteen -year -old gymnasium student, the artist noted the features that will be characteristic of this refined aristocrat, an old -kind of offspring and in mature years. It is he who will initiate the murder of Grigory Rasputin (1916). The portrait, written about two years, seems to be made in a single breath – so acute its characteristic and fresh painting. Masterfully, with a subtle understanding of the psyche of the animal, a dog is written in the hands of a young man. According to Yusupov’s memoirs, the artist himself considered her his best model. The work appeared in Arkhangelsk near Moscow. Together with the portraits of the father, mother and brother of the depicted (1902–1903, all in timing), it made up a kind of series of family portraits (which was rare for the twentieth century), belonging to the highest achievements of the Portraiter. (AT. To.).
Russian portrait. XX century: St. Petersburg, 2001. With. 85.