An important original portrait painting, ca. 1790s, of the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Andreas Kyrillovitch Rasoumowsky [Razumovsky], who among the influential patrons who supported the genius of Ludwig van Beethoven, stands out as a significant figure. His patronage not only provided Beethoven with the financial means and artistic encouragement necessary for his creative endeavors but also played a crucial role in the composition of some of the composer’s most profound works. His name will always survive in connection with the three "Rasoumowsky Quartets,” Opus 59, but it is no exaggeration to say that relationship between Count Razumovsky and Beethoven exemplifies the importance of patronage in the development of Classical music as a genre. Portraits of Razumovsky are very rare; the Glinka Museum in Moscow knows of only four portraits, not including this one.

The painting measures 45" high x 36" wide; 52" high x 43" wide in the frame; the frame itself is a fine antique, most probably from the start of the 18th century. The painting is in very good condition; at some point it was professionally restored with some evidence of touching up and cleaning apparent. Provenance: Acquired in Europe ca. 1920 by Rudolph Wurlitzer (1873-1948) [Wurlitzer Collection of Rare Violins]; sold by Wurlitzer-Bruck Music Antiquarians, 1992; Private Collection; Schubertiade Music & Arts. Exhibited: A Beethoven Festival: Art in the Time of Beethoven, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 29–June 4, 1978.

Here the Count is depicted in a regal pose, sword at his side, with one hand on his waist, the other gesturing over a table with a violin, an open musical score (the notes are rendered artistically and not of an identifiable composition), and stacks of books, including one referring to the history of Egypt, a known interest of Razumovsky. He was also an ardent collector of the sculptures of Casanova, and it is presumed that the sculpture seen in the background over his right shoulder in this painting, is in reference to this. On his left hand, the Count wears a Neapolitan intaglio (cameo) ring, the symbol on which appears to represent the goddess of Reason, apparently a pun on the stem of the family name "Razun" which means "reason" in the old Russian language. A small child, apparently his daughter, may be seen with a small dog in the lower right corner of the canvas, another small dog in the lower left foreground. The crest which appears on the helmet of the child has not been deciphered, except to establish that it is not that of Razumovsky. 

The artist was Italian and his name is only partly legible on the back of the canvas: Vincenzo Mandoni (-oli? ori?). Benezit records a Giuseppe Mandoli, active in the 18th century in Luca and Modena, and who might possibly be a relation, but no other close name matches are there or elsewhere recorded in our searches. Most of the other writing cannot be positively deciphered, but for the conclusion which apparently gives the death date of the artist: "morto il 25 gennaio del 1805". It is presumed that it was painted in Naples during the late 18th century when Razumovsky was posted there as Ambassador from Russia. Though he was actually ambassador to Venice and then to Naples, the style of the work seems more stylistically related to suggest Naples. By 1794, Razumovsky had left Italy to be ambassador in Vienna (Thayer says 1792; Robbins Landon says 1794), so while this is in any event clearly a portrait of a young man (born 1752), it must have been painted before that date at the very latest.

While there are some short accounts,  there has never been a full biography of Razumovsky, perhaps because his palace burned down and there are simply not enough primary documents from which to stitch together a more vivid portrait.  Andreas Razumovsky was the son of Kyrill Resum, a peasant of Lemeschi, a village of the Ukraine, who, with his elder brother, was made a Count (Graf) by the Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Andreas was born October 22, 1752, served in the English and Russian navies, rose to the rank of Admiral, and was Russian Ambassador at Venice, Naples, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Vienna.

At Vienna he married in 1788, Elisabeth, Countess of Thun, one of the "Three Graces", elder sister of the Princess Carl Lichnowsky, and on March 25, 1792, had his audience from the Emperor of Austria as Russian Ambassador, a post which he held with short intervals for more then twenty years. He was a thorough musician, an excellent player of Haydn's Quartets, in which he took second violin, not improbably studying then under Haydn himself. That, with his connection with Lichnowsky, he must have known Beethoven is obvious, but no direct trace of the acquaintance  is found until May 26, 1806 (six weeks after the withdrawal of "Fidelio").

In 1809 the Count formed his famous quartet party: Schuppanzigh, first violin; Weiss, viola; Lincke, Violoncello; and himself (Rasoumowsky, second violin - which for may years met in the evenings and performed, among other compositions, Beethoven's pieces "hot from the fire", under his own immediate instructions.

In April, 1809 appeared the C Minor and Pastoral Symphonies (Nos. 5 and 6), with a dedication on the Parts to Prince Lebkowitz and "son excellence Monsieur le Conte de Rasumoffsky".

In the autumn of 1814, came the Vienna Congress and as the Empress of Russia was in Vienna at the time, the Ambassador’s palace was naturally the scene of special festivities. It was not, however, there that Beethoven was presented to the Empress, but at the Archduke Rudolph’s. The Count's hospitalities were immense and vast as was his palace, a separate wooden annex had to be constructed capable of dining seven hundred persons. On June 3, 1815, six days before the signature of the final act of Congress, the Count was made Prince (Fürst) and on the 31st of the following December the dining hall just mentioned was burned down. The Emperor of Russia gave 400,000 silver rubles (forty thousand pounds) towards the rebuilding, but the misfortune appears to have been too much for the Prince. He soon sold the property, pensioned his quartet and disappears from musical history. The quartet kept together for many years after this date, Sina playing second violin. Beethoven mentions them apropos of the Galitzin Quartets in the letter to his nephew, about 1825.