BRIEF LIVES 1.: CHRISTINA ROBERTSON (Scots Woman Painter)

Born in Kinghorn, Fife, Christina seems to have been encouraged in her love of painting portraits and miniatures by her uncle who was a coach painter by trade.

She quickly made a name for herself by painting portraits of the London nobility and in 1837 she gained several fashionable clients while working in Paris and this led to commissions from the Russian Tsar.


She travelled to Russia in 1839-40 and stayed in the Peterhof Palace in Saint Petersburg and in 1841 she was made an honorary member of the Imperial Russian Academy.

Christina Robertson, one of Scotland's great, but little known, artistic talents was buried in Volkov Cemetery.


The work shown is a portrait of Alexandra Fyodorovna. It is clear that Robertson's work can be compared to Thomas Gainsborough's or Joshua Reynold's