Photos: Jonathan Russell.

Count Zubov (Comte Valentin Platonovič Zubov, Валентин Платонович Зубов, 1884-1969, spelled ‘Zouboff’ in some sources) was a Russian aristocrat and art historian. Aged about 25, he spent the winter of 1908-9 in Italy and where Annie painted this portrait at Salsomaggiore Terme, a town in northern Italy. Zubov founded the Russian Institute of Art History in 1912.

• Media: oil on canvas.
• Dimensions: 1538 x 1934 mm (2.97 m²), unframed.
• History: painted 1908-9; exhibited 1923, Manchester (visible in exhibition photographs) and also visible hanging on a wall in a photograph of Annie’s studio; on display at The French Gallery, New Bond Street (The Graphic, 5 December 1931); presented to the Tate “by Messrs Wallis and Son 1932” (www.tate.org.uk) – Henry Wallis had been the proprietor of ‘The French Gallery,’ a commercial art dealership in London which closed in 1929; exhibited Manchester Art Gallery, 23 Feb 2018 to 6 Jan 2019; Tate Britain, November 2022, “Spotlights: Annie Swynnerton” exhibition.
• Location: Tate.