Lot 13: GEORGE DAWE, R.A., 1781-1829

signed l.r. and dated St. Petersburg 1820

oil on canvas

236 by 148cm., 92 3/4 by 58 1/4 in.

Princely family of Baden, Neue Schloss Baden Baden, Germany

"His portraits are living, breathing entities" (Alexei Gavrilovich Venetsianov)

Seen slightly from below, Alexander I is depicted in a landscape dressed in the uniform of an officer of the Horseguards, holding his cocked hat in his hand and wearing the sash of the Order of St. Andrew, the Order of St.George 4^th Class, and the stripes of several other orders including those of the Order of the Garter (Great Britain), the Sword (Sweden), and Marie-Therese (Austria), together with a silver medal commemorating the Patriotic War.

This monumental portrait is one of a number of versions painted by Dawe after his own prototype of 1819, painted shortly after his arrival in Russia, which hangs in the Alexander Hall of the Winter Palace. It should not only be directly compared with this portrait but also with an example dated 1820 in the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, and a slightly later version of 1824 in the Hermitage, though neither of these examples has him in the Andrew sash. There are also numerous small-scale copies

Born in London, George Dawe was introduced to drawing by his father the caricaturist and engraver F.Dawe. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1803, he soon developed a reputation as an engraver and painter of historical, mythical and heroic scenes. Dawe attended the Congress of Aachen of the Heads of State of the Holy Union in 1818, specifically seeking commissions from the many crowned and titled heads of Europe gathered to decide the fate of France. He was fortunate enough to come to the attention of Alexander I who was impressed by the quality he was able to achieve in portraits created at considerable speed. The emperor invited him to Russia to work on portraits of the heroes of the Napoleonic war, which he intended to hang in a special commemorative gallery in the Winter Palace. It is known that the emperor did not sit for Dawe during the Congress as he was already posing for another English artist, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who appears to have been put out by the prospect of a competitor and in one of his letters rather cattily described Dawe as "fawning at the Russian court".

On his arrival in St. Petersburg, Dawe received not only a high salary, but a studio in the Winter Palace and two assistants, Alexander Poliakov and Vasily Golike. He went on to paint ninety-seven half-length portraits for the War Gallery, with three of the best known being those of Kutuzov, Barclay de Tolly, and the Duke of Wellington. In 1822 a small exhibition of his work was at the Academy of Arts after which he was elected an honorary member. After the triumphant opening of the War Gallery in 1826 he was further lauded in 1828 when he was nominated First Portrait Painter of the Russian Court, confirming his status and winning him many lucrative commissions. He was to paint all of the imperial family and a great many noblemen and women.

Highly praised by his contemporaries for the accuracy of his portraiture, Pavel Svinyin wrote: "The mechanical manner of his hand is quite specific: his brushstrokes are broad, bold, quick, though too quick in applying paints, sometimes it seems that he doesn't touch them at all. Thus, all of Dawe's portraits appear to be works a la prima, like sketches..." (Otechestvennye zapiski [Notes of the Fatherland], 1820.)

In 1829, after having lived in Russia for ten years, Dawe's health began to deteriorate and he returned to London where he died in October 1829 at the age of forty-eight.