3-094-125 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of Leopold, Prince of Saxe-Coburg (1790-1865), 1822. Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars. After Napoleon's defeat, Leopold moved to the United Kingdom, where in 1816 he married Princess Charlotte of Wales. In 1831 he accepted the throne of Belgium following the country's independence in 1830. Leopold was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and the uncle of Queen Victoria. 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.