Portrait of an Unknown Man in a Cocked Hat 1770

This is a portrait of an unknown man in a cocked hat, painted in oil on canvas by Fyodor Rokotov. The materials here are fairly traditional. Rokotov skillfully uses oil paints, manipulating the pigment with a technique known as glazing, which involves applying thin, transparent layers of paint to build up depth of color. Notice how the light catches the man's face, softly rendered with subtle gradations of tone. Rokotov creates a sense of volume and dimension through careful brushwork. However, the real story here is about class. Rokotov was a serf, yet he became a leading portraitist of the Russian Enlightenment, painting the elite of the era. The man’s cocked hat and the intricate details of his clothing all speak to wealth and status. The work embodies the complex social fabric of 18th-century Russia, a culture undergoing transformation through the influence of European ideas, yet still burdened by systems of labor and inequality. Ultimately, this portrait reminds us that even within traditional art forms, materials and making always reflect social context.