Probably Sophie Countess Potocka

This miniature was purchased from "Countess Potocka"¹ and most probably shows Sophie Countess Potocka (circa 1773-circa 1822) whose unusual biography² was a source of inspiration to numerous writers and artists of the 19th century. Being of noble impoverished Greek descent her parents were said to have sold her to a French ambassador who took her to his home country where she made the acquaintance of the imperial Russian major general and governor of the Russian fortress Kamieniec, Joseph Ivanovitch Count de Witt. He fell in love with her, kidnapped and married her in 1779. He took Sophie to Germany where she met Stanislaus Felix Count Potocki, field marshal of the imperial Russian forces. Due to financial difficulties De Witt agreed to divorce Sophie against payment; Potocki married her in Russia in 1798 from which time onwards, the couple belonged to the courtly circles in St. Petersburg. After her husband's death in 1805 Sophie Potocka retired to their estate in Tulczyn and supported agricultural innovations. She travelled to Berlin to get her breast disease cured, where she died at the age of forty-nine. This miniature from the Tansey Collection is most likely a copy of a large portrait. 

D. O.