This portrait entered the Russian Museum as an image of Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich. On the back of the canvas there is a stamped old note, which testifies that in 1772 the portrait was deposited in the cell-master’s office from Catherine II’s private rooms.
In terms of stylistic and technological features, this work should be dated to the mid-1760s. Meanwhile, such a dating contradicts the traditional attribution of the portrait: Pavel Petrovich, who was born in 1754, was about ten years old at that time, which does not correspond to the age of the child depicted in the portrait.
The absence of orders for the boy, which the grand duke received five days after his birth, seemed incongruous to the traditional definition – with them he was presented to all, without exception, portraits. It was not immediately possible to answer the question who exactly this child squeezing a rattle in his hand was. Since the portrait was originally located in the rooms of Catherine II, it was clear that the boy had the closest relation to the Empress.
As it was found out, Rokotov depicted the little Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky, the illegitimate son of Catherine II and G. G. Orlov. Bobrinsky was born in 1762, it does not contradict the established dating. The correctness of the definition is also convincingly confirmed by comparing Rokotov’s portrait with the preserved images of A. G. Bobrinsky in childhood. Alexey Grigorievich Bobrinsky – Count of the Russian Empire, the illegitimate son of Empress Catherine II and Grigory Grigorievich Orlov, the founder of the Count family of Bobrinsky.
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