The oval portrait of Catherine II entered the collection of the Literary Museum in 1926 from the Academy of Sciences. This is a half-length portrait. Catherine II is depicted with a slight turn to the right, and her head is tilted to the left. She is dressed in a white satin dress and a purple casaquin, with an ermine mantle draped over her shoulders. The Empress liked this image very much, and the painter Fyodor Rokotov himself made several replicas. Many art collections have copies of it.

In scientific literature, this portrait was considered an original that was painted by Rokotov for the Imperial Academy of Sciences in 1769. It was on display at the “Exhibition of Russian Portraiture of the Last 150 Years (1700–1850)”, the “Historical and Artistic Exhibition of Russian Portraits in the Tauride Palace” and the “Exhibition of Works by F.S. Rokotov in the State Russian Museum”. In the catalog of this Rokotov exhibition, held in 1925, the art historian Elena Mroz emphasizes that the portrait from the Academy of Sciences was “the favorite portrait of the Empress”, indicating that the 1779 portrait with the artist’s signature, which entered the Russian Museum in 1906, was a repetition.

After the portrait’s transfer from the Academy of Sciences to the Pushkin House, for many researchers the image fell out of the field of view for a long time. Its origin has also been questioned. In 2010, the specialists of the Russian Museum confirmed that it was painted by Rokotov. In addition, an entry dated March 27, 1780, was found in the journal of the commission of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, shedding light on the history of the creation of this “academic” portrait of Catherine II,