Lot 1501 Dα

The identity of both the sitter and the artist are recorded in an inscription on the reverse of the image: “Maur Meyer de Schauensee / general de Brigade au ….France / peint / par Appiani peintre a Milan / A° 1797”.
Meyer de Schauensee joined the Swiss Guard Regiment in Paris as a second lieutenant in 1784. He later allied with the revolutionaries and became a French citizen in 1791. He fell into Austrian hands as a prisoner of war during the Battle of Mantua in 1799 whilst on active duty in Italy. It is possible that Andrea Appiani, an important Italian Neoclassical painter and great admirer of Napoleon, painted the General whilst he was in Milan in 1797. Appiani became court painter to Napoleon in 1805, but had already honoured his military successes in Italy in 1796 and 1797 with the design of the motif sides of medallions commemorating his victories in the battles of Montenotte, Millesimo, and Mantua.