This painting by Winterhalter isn’t a typical court portrait.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter was known throughout Europe in the mid 19th century as THE painter to get your portrait done by if you were nobility of any sort. He painted the famously fashionable Empress Eugénie of France, Empress Sisi (Elisabeth) of Austria, and Queen Victoria, among a whole bevy of other upper crust fancypants. This is not his typical style of portraiture though. Usually, princesses like Leonilla were painted in dresses that resemble over-decorated wedding cakes, and are posed demurely in pastoral or neutral settings.

This painting makes clear references to exoticism and orientalism, namely the odalisque. The Near Eastern influence is evidenced in the foreign-looking setting, which with a classical column and tiled floor recalls the Mediterranean or northern Africa. Compared to other portraits of similarly important people, Leonilla’s dress is simple, and highlights her natural beauty. Her reclined pose is informal, and is a direct reference to scenes of harems painted by romantic painters such as Delacroix and Gérôme.

The large string of pearls that she plays with draws attention to her decolletage, a feature that both Winterhalter and the fashion of the period loved to emphasize.  All other known portraits of the Princess are in keeping with the expected mode for court portraiture, so maybe she just thought it was time for something different. She might have selected this pose and setting due to the way in which her own appearance was frequently interpreted. Her fellow nobles thought she looked “exotic” often describing her as having an “Italian look." So maybe this portrait is her leaning in and capitalizing on her most notable features.

It’s not like Leonilla was posing in the nude à la Ingres, but a portrait this sexy would not have been acceptable if she wasn't born into one of the most influential families of the Russian nobility and compounded her status by keeping it in the family and marrying her cousin. Different times.