Comparing the numerous facts, IG Romanycheva, Candidate of Art Criticism, asserts with confidence that “from the middle of the 1750s, Rokotov was in St. Petersburg and studied, obviously, in the Garrison School, and perhaps in the Cadet Corps itself, as a class student or a private student… But somehow, he was closely associated with the Exquisite Cadet Corps. “
In favor of this version is the fact that the majority of Rokotov portrayed were graduates of this institution. This is another reason why the “Portrait of an Unknown Young Man in a Guards Uniform” is considered by many researchers to be the only self-portrait of a hudzhnik.
The face depicted on it with boyish, puffy lips may seem youthfully careless if it were not for the serious look of lively, bright, very attentive eyes, expressing great dignity and talking about the mind and considerable energy. And although the drawing here is still rather timid, and the painting is rather dry, but the young artist managed to convey the personal qualities of the person, his lively concrete image. This portrait is only a prologue to Rokotov’s further work.
Portrait of an unknown in a cocked hat by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of the poet Vasily Ivanovich Maikov by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of Empress Catherine II by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of A. G. Bobrinsky in childhood by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait d’un jeune inconnu en uniforme de garde – Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of an Unknown Woman in a Pink Dress by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of Alexandra Petrovna Struyskaya by Fedor Rokotov 
Portrait of V. I. Maikov by Fedor Rokotov