The artist’s imagination was captured by the legendary story of an adventuress known in Russian history as Yelizaveta Tarakanova (circa 1745-1775). She pretended to be the daughter of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna from her secret marriage to A. G. Razumovsky. By the order of Catherine II, Count A.G. Orlov lured Tarakanova out of Italy and brought her to Saint Petersburg where she was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress and died of tuberculosis. The official version of Princess Tarakova’s story was published in the Encyclopedic Dictionary. There is also a legend that Tarakanova died during the great flood of 1777 in her cell. A certain part of the public took Flavitsky’s painting as a criticism of tsarist despotism. Alexander II made it be noted that its subject matter was “taken from a novel and has no historic foundation”.

　　这位艺术家的想象力被俄罗斯历史上著名的女冒险家耶利扎维塔·塔拉卡诺娃（约1745-1775年）的传奇故事所俘获。她假装是伊丽莎白·彼得罗夫娜皇后与A.G.拉祖莫夫斯基秘密结婚后的女儿。根据叶卡捷琳娜二世的命令，奥尔洛夫伯爵把塔拉卡诺娃从意大利引诱出来，带到圣彼得堡，在那里她被囚禁在彼得和保罗要塞，死于肺结核。塔拉科娃公主故事的官方版本发表在百科全书词典上。还有一个传说，塔拉卡诺娃在1777年的大洪水中死在她的牢房里。有一部分公众认为弗拉维茨基的画是对沙皇专制主义的批评。亚历山大二世指出，它的主题是“取自小说，没有历史基础”。

   Even abroad, Flavitsky planned to write a picture about the ill-fated destiny of the famous adventurer impostor, who deliberately took the name of Princess Tarakanova and marked herself on the Russian throne. The picture shows a stone casemate with a large window for the prison. The painting was a huge success both in Petersburg, Moscow, and abroad, including at the world exhibition in Paris. There are two copyrighted copies of this painting, one of which is in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the second - in the Tashkent State Museum of Art.

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