BY THE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY, WITH UNDERGLAZE BLUE MARK OF HAMMER, SICKLE AND COG, DATED 1919 AND MODELLER'S INCISED CYRILLIC SIGNATURE 'V LUKIN', WITH OVERGLAZE BLUE MARK OF YELENA DANKO, DATED 1922 AND INSCRIBED 'NO 236/4.'

Elena Danko (1898-1942) trained in Kiev, Moscow, under Mashkov, and in St. Petersburg, becoming a porcelain painter at the State Porcelain, later Lomonosov, Factory, between 1918 and 1941. Elena worked on figures, specially those by her sister, Natalia, and her work was used as the models for mass production.

Vasilii Kuznetsov (1881-1923) was head of the sculpture department of the Imperial, later State, Porcelain Factory between 1914 and 1919, created the figures after famous paintings. The portrait of Ekaterina Molchanova (1776) by Dmitrii Levitskii (1735-1822) is in the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, no. 4990.

For the original portrait of Ekaterina Molchanova by D. Levitsky (1776) see the catalogue of the State Russian Museum Painting 18th-early 20th century, Leningrad, 1980, page 180, illustration 3122 [Inv. No. 4990]