George Dawe

The beginning of the 19th century was marked by the historic event involving every major European country, including Russia, and causing dramatic changes in all aspects of life. The Patriotic War of 1812 triggered an unprecedented surge of patriotism, Russian national self-consciousness, self-sacrificing spirit and striving for victory.
In 1819, Emperor Alexander I ordered to create a portrait gallery dedicated to heroes of 1812. The fulfillment of the order was entrusted to George Dawe, an English painter who attained the fame of a fashionable portraitist; He was introduced to the Emperor at the Congress of the founding countries of the Holy Alliance. The painter came to Russia to St. Petersburg where he lived for 10 years. Over that time, Dawe and his Russian students V.A. Golike and A.V. Polyakov had painted 333 portraits for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace; some of the portraits were copied both for those who were depicted in them and for their relatives, friends and colleagues.
The magic brush of Dawe created many high-style romantic portraits of war heroes, including Prince Vasilchikov, Count Stroganov, Prince Lanskoy and General Bakhmetiev; the portraits of the latter are held in the collection of the museum. The museum also has a portrait of Alexander I, which initially was attributed to an unknown Russian painter of the first half of the 19th century. The restoration of the portrait helped to identify the author by his signature that belonged to A.I. Travin (1801 – 1867). He was a student at the Academy of Arts; in 1838 he was awarded the title of an unclassed artist for his works of art, several silver medals and was granted a privilege to make a copy of the portrait of Alexander I from Dawe’s painting. The artist, undoubtedly, succeeded in conveying the exact image of the model, confident and elevated manner of painting, the mastery of brushwork inherent in the original painting.