Abstract

the present paper focuses on a full-length oil-on-canvas portrait attributed to george dawe and now kept at the Magnani rocca Foundation. the sitter of that portrait has been hitherto identified with Marie louise of austria, and the painting accordingly dated to 1818-19, despite the lack both of documentary evidence and of any resemblance whatsoever with the most often reproduced features of the empress of France, then duchess of Parma, Piacenza and guastalla. a close comparison with a 1822 oil-on-canvas portrait of the fifth daughter of the tsar Paul i, Maria Pavlovna romanova, grand duchess of Saxe-Weimar-eisenach, that is signed by george dawe and presently kept in the Hermitage State Museum of Saint Petersburg, allows us to recognize the same sitter also in the painting under scrutiny, for which a date after 5 november 1828 is suggested by the presence of a second female figure, in the form of a sculpted bust with the inscription «Maria» that shows in profile on the right of the composition. the name «Maria» and the strict physionomic resemblance with a statue portrait at Pavlosk, by vladimir alexandrovich Beklemishev, suggest to identify this woman with the dead mother of the sitter: i.e., with the tsarina Maria Feodorovna, born Sophia dorothea of Württemberg, who passed away on 5 november 1828. thus, the Magnani rocca portrait could stage a tribute by Maria Pavlovna – actually represented in a grieving appearance – to the memory of her beloved mother