Having recently seen this portrait and having learned that it depicts Ekaterina Fedorovna Tizengauzen (1803-1888), I thought: “So this is what Kutuzov's beloved granddaughter was like. This is whose name was first thrashed at all corners by Petersburg gossips, and then by historians!"
In 1827, when Kutuzov's daughter Elizaveta Mikhailovna Khitrovo, after a long life in Europe, brought from Vienna an unknown seven-year-old boy Felix Elston from Vienna, the Petersburg gossips immediately guessed: this is the illegitimate son of Katya Tizengauzen, daughter of Elizaveta Mikhailovna from her first marriage. Not long puzzled over the father. They announced the brother of the Tsar, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich: after all, he traveled to Italy when the Khitrovo family was there too! This guess was confirmed by a new rumor: Felix was given a patronymic "Nikolaevich" in honor of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich, who favors a mysterious boy.
After the death of Elizaveta Mikhailovna in 1839, all the care of the young man was taken over by her unmarried daughter, who continued to take care of Felix and his family until her death. Felix Nikolaevich Elston (1820-1877) became a general of the Russian army, commanded the Kharkov military district and, having married, inherited the title of his wife - he became Count Sumarokov-Elston. His son Felix Feliksovich continued this tradition and, adding to his title the princely title of wife, became Prince Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston (1856-1928).
The dismantling of the Yusupov archives after the revolution brought sensational findings. Documents were found proving that the Khitrovo family was very close to the Prussian royal court, and it was rumored that the elderly Frederick William III, widowed, was going to woo Yekaterina Fedorovna, who was 33 years younger than him! This absurdity gave rise to the suspicion among historians that Katya Tiesenhausen had an affair with the youngest son of the king, the handsome William, Prince of Prussia, who became the father of her child. Several months have passed - and a new find: letters from the Hungarian Countess Forgach to Felix Elston, irrefutably proving that she is his mother! And soon in the Yusupov papers they found a portrait of a young officer, in which the researchers easily identified Prince William … The circle closed, the ends met!
It seems that Forgach and Wilhelm had a whirlwind romance, which they for obvious reasons hid from the world. And when the child appeared, the Prussian royal family gave him to the upbringing of Elizaveta Mikhailovna, who was close to her, who then took him to Russia, closer to the wife of Nicholas I, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna - the sister of Prince Wilhelm! It turns out that Ekaterina Fyodorovna always knew that her pupil was the cousin of Emperor Alexander II, his son Felix Feliksovich Yusupov Sr. was the second cousin of Alexander III, and Felix Yusupov Jr., the killer of Rasputin, was the fourth cousin of Nicholas II. But, despite the rumors defaming her, she managed to keep a terrible secret, which became known to the world only thanks to the revolution that opened access to the Yusupov archive!