Provenance
Sotheby’s London, May 22, 2002, lot 4
Literature
L.A. Karnauhova, T.G. Dmitrieva, S.I. Arkhangelsky, Vladimir Ivanovich Hau: Russian Intimate Portrait, Moscow, 2010, p. 186, no. 121
Countess Maria Petrovna Valueva, née Vyazemskaya (1813-1849) was a famous society beauty of the Pushkin era. The daughter of the poet Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky and Vera Fyodorovna, née Princess Gagarina, Maria Petrovna spent her childhood in Moscow. In 1832, the Vyazemsky family moved to St.Petersburg. In 1835, Maria became a maid of honour to the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. Soon afterwards she married Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuev, kammer-yunker, later a prominent politician. Money for the bride’s dowry was granted personally by Nicholas I.
