Explore: Alexander Sauerweid

(1783 - 1844)

Painter and etcher Alexander Sauerweid was born in Courlande, Russia. He studied at Dresden Academy and drew scenes of the battles fought in the surrounding area in the style of Vernet. In 1810, he made a series of 19 costume illustrations of the army of Westphalia; the most comprehensive contemporary uniform study of that army. In 1814, Emperor Alexander I of Russia summoned him to work in St Petersburg. Soon afterwards he visited England, where he was commissioned by Thomas Clay of Ludgate Hill, London (a seller of artist’s materials), to draw two scenes of the Battle of Waterloo. They were engraved by John William Cook and published in 1819. By 1838, Sauerweid was teaching at the St Petersburg Academy. He died in St Petersburg, aged 61.