Following her mother's death in 1750, Elizaveta was attached to the Oranienbaum court of the future empress of Russia, Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna, who found her a "very ugly, extremely dirty child with an olive skin".
Following her mother's death in 1750, the child Elizaveta was attached to the Oranienbaum court of Grand Duke Peter's wife, Grand Duchess Catherine Alekseyevna (at this time, Peter was the heir to the throne). Anisimov 2004:276 Catherine herself would write of her as "very ugly, extremely dirty child with an olive skin".