This drawing served as the model for an engraved portrait of Catherine the Great of Russia that was commissioned as the frontispiece of the Premier discours sur l'utilité et les avantages que les princes peuvent retirer de leurs voyages, published in 1782 by the poet Charles-François Lubersac de Livron. Although Greuze was one of the Empress's favorite artists , the two never met, and Greuze based his drawing on a portrait bust of the Empress by Jean-Antoine Houdon. As the model for a book frontispiece, this work fits into the Morgan's large collection of studies for book illustrations, particularly the Gordon Ray collection. The eighteenth-century French context and the focus on royal patronage align with the recently bequest of books from Jayne Wrightsman. Finally, the drawing adds to our holdings of Greuze's work, being in a different medium from our other studies by him.
Inscribed at lower center: "L'imperatrice de Russie par F."
C. Franck in Houdon (1741-1828), sculpteur des Lumières, exhib. cat., Versailles, Musée National du Château de Versailles, and Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003-2004, p. 54.