Early 19th Century Portrait Painting of an Imperial Artillery Officer

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After Waterloo, the Tsar commissioned artists to paint the portraits of all the officers who had participated in that victory. … Read more After Waterloo, the Tsar commissioned artists to paint the portraits of all the officers who had participated in that victory. Chief among these painters was George Dawe who spent the years 1818-28 working for the Emperor Alexander I in St Petersburg, creating or overseeing 336 portraits of those responsible for the defeat of Napoleon, housed in a specially-created gallery in the Winter Palace (the equivalent of the Waterloo Chamber). It was a huge undertaking, and we feel this particularly fine portrait may well have been a part of the grand project. Be that as it may, and whether or not this is from the hand of George Dawe or his assistants Wilhelm August Goliske and the serf Alexander Polyakov, or was even painted for the gallery, the quality of this particular work is unmistakeable. We can only guess at the forces of history that led it to be put into our hands.

In need of delicate restoration, the canvas measures 21 1/8" x 25 1/2".

It is a marvelous portrait. See less