Elena Pavlovna loved flowers. She planted them herself in her small garden, and every day her room was decorated with fresh bouquets… She could spend hours looking at engravings of still lifes by famous painters, and then tried to recreate the picture using real flowers. She was given a botanical encyclopedia – and she compiled a very extensive herbarium.”

Portrait of Catherine II 1794 Oil on canvas, 230 x 132 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

LAMPI, Johann Baptist I

Austrian painter (b. 1751, Romeno, d. 1830, Wien)