Miniature portrait of Nicholas I by Ivan Winberg (1798 – 1851)

Gouache on ivory, held in a period gold mount later set as a brooch

Signed at mid-right

Inv. no. ab_7426

Ivan Winberg was born in Helsinki in 1798, only ten years before Russia annexed what is now Finland and made the city the capital of a new autonomous region dubbed the Grand Duchy of Finland. At the time of his birth, it was part of the Kingdom of Sweden, so Winberg is frequently described as a Swedish artist. Nevertheless, his career as an artist was carried out entirely within the borders of the Russian Empire. Today he is described as Swedish, Finnish, and Russian.

His father was a goldsmith working in the Russian capital of St. Petersburg, a fact that undoubtedly motivated his choice of profession. Goldsmiths in this era mounted gold boxes with miniature portraits and the young man would have seen many in his father’s workshop. His skill as a portraitist brought him to the attention of the Imperial court and he made numerous portraits of Emperor Nicholas I (ruled 1825-1855) which were mounted in the lids of gold snuffboxes. The Emperor awarded these to a select group of individuals in recognition of their acts or their status. Such boxes were sometimes sold with the miniature removed. In the case of this miniature, very probably removed from some gold presentation piece, it was mounted as a brooch in a later frame, perhaps so the descendants of the original recipient could recall (and display) their close connections to the Imperial court.