This image is said to have hidden meanings. She was a colorful character according to this article, "Popular and charming, Julia von der Pahlen married three times. Her first marriage, to Count Nicholai Samoilov, captain of the Preobrazhenskii Guards, lasted only from 1822 to 1824. Their relationship quickly disintegrated because of Samoilova's highly active social life and her constant admirers. She left Samoilov and Russia to live in her family villa near Milan in 1824. Establishing herself as an hostess in 1828, she became known as the Russian Lady of Milan, entertaining writers and musicians such as Turgenev and Donizetti. She had an affair with the opera composer Giovanni Pacini from 1828 to 1831. Samoilova's second husband was an Italian opera singer known only as Peri, whom she married in 1842; finally she married the French diplomat the Comte de Mornay in 1863."
Countess Samilova wears a gorgeous Romantic era dress in this 1830 Karl Brullov portrait. It features a bertha and flounces of lace near its hem.
The article cited above states, "...A grand parade portrait, Countess Samoilova is a scene of domestic harmony. Over life-size (some nine feet by six feet) it is simply composed: the young Russian Countess Julia Samoilova strides towards the viewer surrounded by her Italian foster-daughter, Giovanina, a family servant and a pet dog. Samoilova and Giovanina are dressed in the height of Parisian fashion: Samoilova wears a stylish blue evening gown, trimmed with elegant lace, and silk shoes, and Giovanina a sumptuous black velvet spencer and fur-trimmed skirt..."
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