Mystery General C18th/19th, possibly Russian...

[Ataraxie]

I'm trying to hunt down who this chap is - a friend took the picture whilst she was wandering around the Hermitage/Winter Palace galleries in St Petersburg, Russia. This was two years ago, she didn't take notes, so now we're both stuck as to who he is.

(In before pointless replies - some Russian generals wore red, especially the various Counts Orlov - It might be one of those, but I'm not entirely certain, and I discounted the obvious "He's British" based on only a portrait of the Duke of Wellington being listed in the Hermitage/Winter Palace collection).

I'm hoping though, that someone might be able to tell me who he is, or at least have an educated guess at the artist to help narrow down the great search...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Georgy Zhukov]

From what I can tell he appears to be holding a Field Marshal's Baton, you can go through this list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_Marshal_(Russia)

[Sphere]

You might want to pin down the artist first, as that would give you a list of patrons to go through.

The pose of the horse and the drapes seem distinctive.

[Sphere]

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=292390



I found a portrait showing the same medal with the picture of the czar on it in better detail. Its on a Field Marshall named Kutuzov from 1813, so we are probably in the Napoleonic era.

[Ataraxie]

Thankyou Sphere !

I'd drawn a blank on that list of Russian marshals, and was wondering if it'd be possible to identify his orders - narrowing by the decoration with the picture is very helpful, since I can't imagine that that was all that common during the Napoleonic wars, especially in reward to what might be a non-Russian general, or at least there can't be too many generals famous enough to have their picture up (lifesize) in the winter palace...

[clandestino]

It's not the same medal, first one has female portrait, probably Catherine the Great's.

[Ataraxie]

You can tell from that smudge ?

The Counts Orlov were all to do with Catherine II, so it'd make sense if it was one of them, for it to be her picture instead of a Tsar...