In 1874, a "colony" of Russian wanderers formed in Paris. Here, masters like Ilya Repin and Vasily Surikov spent their creative vacations. Frequent guests included members of the Russian bohemia, such as Sergey Sergeyevich, the grandson of architect Osip de Bove, who came with his wife Sara Solovtsova. They often interacted with the artists. It was in Paris that Ilya Repin conceived the idea of creating a series of paintings on historical themes.

According to contemporaries, Repin actively studied the history of the Petrine era and the Streltsy uprisings. He wrote to his teacher Vladimir Stasov in St. Petersburg: "Please be kind, send me a costume for Tsarevna Sofia! Retrieve it from the bottom of the sea! Get it from the wardrobe of the Mariinsky or Alexandrinsky theaters. There, new costumes are constructed quite accurately." In search of a model for the portrait, he tried to draw the household cook, Bamberger, and Serov, but none of them satisfied him. Then he remembered de Bove's wife.

For two weeks, Repin painted Sara's portrait. A few years later, the famous painting emerged. The heroine is depicted in the foreground with bulging eyes, furrowed brows, and tightly pressed lips, exactly like Sara Alexandrovna in anger. The former queen, now a nun in the story, stands by the window, behind which her brother Peter ordered the hanging of three Streltsy, handing one of them a petition for the tsarevna's ascension to the throne. In 1940, the sketch of Sara Solovtsova was transferred to the State Russian Museum, while the painting "Tsarevna Sofia in Novodevichy Convent" is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery.