(1781 - 1829)
History and portrait painter George Dawe was born in London, the son of mezzotinter Philip Dawe. His younger brothers, Henry Edward and James Philip, and sister, Mary Margaret, all became artists. Having been instructed in the art of engraving by his father, George turned to painting. In 1819 he went to Russia, where he painted some four hundred portraits of the chiefs of the Russian army, who (with the help of the Russian winter) had vanquished Napoleon, for the Emperor. Dawe became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1809 and a Royal Academician in 1814. He did not live to enjoy the considerable sum he earned as a result of his time in Russia; dying only six weeks after his return to England in 1829. He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.
