Catherine the Great
In this portrait (c. 1762) by the Danish painter Vigilius Eriksen, the Russian empress Catherine the Great is shown on horseback, much like any male ruler of the time. Born Sophia Augusta Frederika of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1729, Catherine was the daughter of a minor German prince. When she married the future tsar Peter III in 1745, she promptly learned Russian and adopted Russian Orthodoxy. Peter, physically and mentally frail, proved no match for her; in 1762 she staged a coup against him and took his place when he was killed. (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartes, France / Bridgeman Images.)