Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov

Fyodor Stepanovich Rokotov (born 1735/36, Moscow, Russia—died Dec. 12 [Dec. 24, New Style], 1808, Moscow) was a Russian artist and prominent master of chamber portraits that were close to the ideas of sentimentalism and Rococo. He is credited with inventing a uniquely personal style in Russian portrait painting. Though he was a serf or freed serf by birth, Rokotov’s art showed no trace of his humble origins. Rather, the faces in his paintings were marked...