The son of a priest, Dimitri Levitski was born in 1735 in kyiv and died in 1822 in Saint Petersburg. He was a pupil of Antropoff and very quickly appointed member of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg in 1769.
Empress Catherine II commissioned several portraits from him, as well as Count Stoganoff. He was famous throughout Europe; in France, among others, he painted the portrait of Diderot.
He was the teacher of Vladimir Borovikovsky, a portrait painter who dominated Russian art in the 18th century.

These two paintings offer us, for one, a scene that takes place in the painter's studio, an Emir looks admiringly at the portrait of his beloved, for the other an allegory of sculpture. A marble sphinx sits in the center of the scene pointed by its master in front of an assembly lulled by a lute and a violin.
Finesse and elegance, a hushed and captivating atmosphere transports us to the heart of these two brilliantly executed scenes.
One of the paintings has a signature at the bottom left.
They are enhanced with a frame with a black and gold patina, they have been relined.
Dimensions: 147 103 cm x