3-093-758 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of Alexander Kh. von Benckendorf (1781-1844) (1st), 1822. Russian cavalry general and statesman of Baltic German descent, adjutant general of Alexander I and a commander of partisan (Kossak irregular) units during the French invasion of Russia. He is most frequently remembered for his later role, under Nicholas I, as the founding head of the Gendarmes and the secret police in Russia known as the Third Section. English portraitist George Dawe (1781-1829) was commissioned by Alexander I to paint 329 portraits of senior Russian military staff who had successfully fought Napoleon during his invasion of Russia, for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace. Dawe worked in Saint Petersburg from 1822 to 1828, with his assistants, Alexander Polyakov and Wilhelm August Golicke, and was officially appointed First Portrait Painter of the Imperial Court.