In 1755, Rotari accepted an invitation to the court of Empress Elisabeth in St. Petersburg. Upon his arrival there the following year, he became Court Painter and immediately established an academy. His studio quickly acquired fame as a cultural address in the city, and he remained there until his death in 1762. Rotari’s fascination for the human face, led him to produce a series of sixty-two small depictions of the heads of attractive young women in various types of contemporary dress. Here, the slightly smiling face, with smallish, wide-open eyes, appears to echo the local facial types which Rotari rendered in large quantities for his Russian patron and public.