General Theodore Petrovitch Uvarov (1773/4-1824)

General Theodore Uvarov was among the Russian commanders who fought at Borodino in 1812 and subsequently led the allied armies pursuing Napoleon across Europe in 1813-14. Lawrence painted him in Vienna in 1818 as part of the extraordinary Waterloo Chamber project — a commission arranged by the Prince Regent (later George IV) to create a gallery of portraits of every significant military and political leader who had contributed to Napoleon's defeat. The project required Lawrence to travel to Aix-la-Chapelle, Vienna, and Rome between 1818 and 1820, painting monarchs, generals, and statesmen in a sustained burst of productivity that was without precedent in the history of British portrait painting. Each portrait had to project both individual character and the collective grandeur of the coalition's triumph; Lawrence succeeded by maintaining his characteristic psychological intimacy within a format that demanded historical gravitas. The resulting Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle is the most ambitious portrait project in British art and stands as Lawrence's supreme achievement.

The military uniform, heavy with gold braid and decorations, gives Lawrence scope for some of his most bravura passages of paint. Thick impasto catches the light on metallic surfaces, while the face is rendered with more restrained, careful brushwork that conveys martial determination.