Old Rags

Princess Elisaveta Esperovna Troubetzkaya by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1859 Russia

Portrait of Varvara Dmitrievna Korsakova by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1858 Russia

Elena Pavlovna Bibikova by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1860 Russia

Countess Olga Shuvalova by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1858 Russia

Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1857 Russia, State Hermitage Museum

Countess Varvara Alekseyevna Musina-Pushkina by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1850’s Russia, State Hermitage Museum

Portrait of a Woman by Alexey Tyranov, 1841 Russia, the Kursk Gallery

Portrait of a Woman by Apollon Mokritsky, 1841, Kaluga Art Museum

EDIT: Had to include this response by there-is-no-box because I thought it was great.

I almost scrolled past this, but something about it caught me off guard.

I think it’s her eyes. They’re looking straight at you and they’re not coy or modest or deferential. She’s looking straight at you; you, personally. And she looks like she’s thinking about something, something other than “here you may gaze at my beauty.” She just seems so active when women are so often portrayed as passive

Evening dress, 1899 St Petersburg

Princess Tatyana Alexandrovna Yusupova by Franz Xavier Winterhalter, 1858