Because the portraits contained in this bound volume do not constitute preparatory studies for paintings, this album cannot be considered as a liber veritatis. Some of the subjects, however, were portrayed by Vigee Le Brun in paintings that have been traced: folios 13 (Charlotte Ritt, see Baillio, cited below); 17 (Countess Varvara Nikolaevna Golovin, exhibited here as no. 46); 18 (Count Giulio Litta, Knight of Malta; last recorded in Paris exhibition,

1795-1801
Giulio Litta folio 18
Vigee Le Brun's Drawings

L'Exposition de I'artfrancais sous Louis XIV et Louis XV, 1888, no. 58, then in collection of Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte); 19 (Prince Alexander Borissovitch Kourakin, 1797, now in Hermitage Museum, Leningrad); 22 (Countess Kinsky, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena); 25 Julie Le Brun, see cat. nos. 25 and 50); 28 (Princess Natalia Ivanovna Kourakin, engraved in 1818 by Comtesse Benoist); 31 (Irina Ivanovna Worontzoff, 1797, see cat. no. 45). In all likelihood, the sketches were executed during social gatherings in Saint Petersburg. Most of them depict Russians, but the list of sitters includes Italian, Polish, Austrian, French, and English names. The national diversity of the sitters reflects the fact that by the end of the eighteenth century, Saint Petersburg had become extremely cosmopolitan.

In all, four albums including the present one appeared at the estate sale of Louis Deglatingny (see below). Lot 378 of the same sale is presently in a private collection, Washington, D.C. The albums designated as lots 380 and 381 were presumably done in Italy.

A note dated 1939, in the Vigee Le Brun files in the Paintings Department of the Louvre, indicates that several books of drawings attributed to Vigee Le Brun and containing portraits of Italian and Russian sitters were then in the possession of MmeJeannerat, Paris.

PROVENANCE: Ph. L. de Bordes de Fortage; Paul Eudel; Louis Deglatigny, Rouen; his sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, November 4-5, 1937, lot 379; Popoff collection, Paris.

REFERENCE: J. Baillio, 1980, p. 166 (fig. 18 reproduces folio 13, portrait of Charlotte Ritt).