Andrey Matveyev (painter)

He was one of that nation's earliest modern-style portrait painters and helped to establish the genre.

Peter the Great, having somehow become acquainted and impressed with Matveyev's early work, sent him to study in Europe.

Beginning in 1716, he spent eleven years in the Netherlands and Flanders where he worked under Carel de Moor.

From c.1731, he was the head of a team of painters who worked on several architectural projects, including interiors at the Peter and Paul Cathedral and a triumphal arch in honor of Empress Anna Ivanovna.

There is an alternative version of the painting, also attributed to Matveyev, which has been identified as Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick with Anna Leopoldovna.