Marie Feodorovna (1759–1828), née Sophie Marie Dorothea Auguste Louise of Württemberg, was the second wife of Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Emperor Paul I (from 26 September 1776), and the mother of Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I. She devoted most of her time to philanthropic work and setting up schools. She organised Russia’s first literary salon in her residence in Pavlovsk, she painted and drew, and made ornaments out of ivory and amber on a lathe.

Dawe George

Dawe, George Edward
1781, London – 1829, Kentish Town (near London)
English painter, draughtsman,portraitist. Son and student of engraver F. Dawe. Elder brother of engraver Henry Edward Dawe. Studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1803). Academician (1813). Honorary member of the academies of arts of Vienna, Florence, Munich, Dresden, Stockholm and Paris. Moved to Russia on the invitation of Emperor Alexander I to paint portraits of commanders who fought in the Patriotic War of 1812. Together with his Russian assistances Alexander Polyakov and Vasily Golike created 322 portraits of Russian generals for the Military Gallery in the Winter Palace. Produced many paintings on commission. Honorary associate member of the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1820). First portrait painter of the Imperial Court (1828). Left St Petersburg (1828), returned for a short time (February 1829), then left for London via Warsaw.