• Levitzky: Russian: Дмитрий Григорьевич Левицкий; Ukrainian: Дмитро Григорович Левицький; was an Ukrainian-born Russian portrait painter.
• He was born in May 1735 in Kiev to Grigory Kirillovich Levitsky; a priest, who was also an amateur painter and engraver.
• In 1758, he moved to Saint Petersburg to become a pupil of the Russian artist Aleksey Antropov.
• He also studied with Giuseppe Valeriani.
• In 1764, he established himself as a free-lance artist.
• He was named an academician and appointed as professor of the portrait painting class at the Academy.
• In 1772–1776, Levitzky worked on a series of portraits of the pupils of the privileged women's establishment, the Smolny Institute for Young Ladies, in St. Petersburg.
• They were commissioned by Catherine II. The girls are depicted performing dances, music, and plays.
• Levitzky's eyesight began to deteriorate at the end of the 1790s, and he rarely painted as a result of this.
• He died on 16 April 1822 in St. Petersburg.
