George Dawe. Portrait of Alexander I. 1825

George Dawe
(1781-1829)

The English portrait painter George Dawe spent 10 years of his life, from 1819 to 1829, on the banks of the Neva.

George Dawe was born in London. His father, the renowned engraver and caricature artist F. Dawe, gave him his first drawing and painting lessons. George graduated with High Honours from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in London in 1803. It did not take him long to earn acclaim as an engraver, painter of historical, mythical, and scenic motifs and heroic scenes.

At the Aachen Congress of Heads of State of the Holy Union in 1818, George Dawe, already a renowned portrait painter, was introduced to Alexander I, who invited him to Russia to paint portraits for the Military Glory Gallery of the Winter Palace.

George Dawe was commissioned to paint a gallery of portraits of the 1812-1814 Russo-French war. He was given a studio next to the Winter Palace, two assistants and a high salary. Of the gallery's 336 portraits, Dawe painted 97 half-figures and the three best-known life-size portraits: those of M.I. Kutuzov, M.B. Barclay de Tolly and the Duke of Wellington. In 1820 Dawe was elected honorary member of the St Petersburg Art Academy. In 1828, he was nominated First Portrait Painter of the Russian Imperial Court.

The opening of the Military Glory Gallery in 1826 was a highlight for St Petersburg and a triumph for the artist. He became a national hero overnight and was immediately inundated with lucrative contracts. Dawe would paint many more masterful portraits in Russia. "His portraits are living, breathing entities," wrote the Russian artist A.G. Venetsianov.

Despite his national stardom, George Dawe did not get along with St Petersburg High Society, and the emperor eventually had to ask him to leave.

The slight aftertaste of unpleasantness surrounding George Dawe's sojourn in St Petersburg has faded away, but the amazing, peerless painterly monument to the Russian Army and its great victory will abide forever. The English artist created a lofty masterpiece that took a place of pride in Russian art history.