Christina Robertson’s Children with a Parrot: Identification of the Sitters

Abstract

A tender and touching children’s portrait in the Hermitage was created by the Scottish artist Christina Robertson during her stay in Russia and dates to 1850 (fig. 1). Although Robertson’s customers were wealthy nobles—we can identify them by name in many of her signed works—this portrait of children unfortunately still keeps a major secret. The lack of information about the sitters does not detract from the value of the painting, but nevertheless, researchers and art lovers are always interested in knowing who is depicted in the portrait. In this article, I will make an