Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky

Count Alexei Grigorievich Bobrinsky (11 April 1762 - 20 June 1813), was the illegitimate son of Empress Catherine II of Russia and her lover, Count Grigory Orlov.  He was brought up away from court, in the village of Bobriki, in the Tula province.

Portrait by Fyodor Rokotov, circa 1760s.

Portrait by Carl-Ludwig Christinek (1730/1732 - circa 1794), circa 1770.

Before his nineteenth birthday, the Empress wrote to him and finally acknowledged that she was in fact his mother.  She was long undecided as to what surname he should carry, but eventually chose Bobrinsky, a name derived from that of his estate. 

In masquerade costume, unknown artist, circa late 1770s.

After her death, one of the very first actions of her successor, Paul I, was to make his thirty-four year old half-brother a count of the Russian Empire. Count Bobrinsky married, had four children, and his line survives to this day.  He died at the age of fifty-one at his estate of Bogoroditsk.

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Another portrait by Rokotov, this is considered by many to be of Count Bobrinsky.