The present miniature derives from a large-scale portrait on canvas by the Russian artist Fedor Rokotov (1736-1808) painted in 1779, now in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Countess Ekaterina Nicolayevna Orlova of Russia, née Zinovyeva (1757/58-1781) was the daughter of N. I. Zinovyev and E. N. Senyavina. She married her cousin, Count Grigoriy Grigoryevich Orlov (1734-1783), favourite of Empress Catherine the Great. She was maid-of-honour to the Empress and lady-in-waiting from 1777. In 1781 she died of consumption and her husband, left devastated, died two years later. She is buried at Lausanne Cathedral, Switzerland.