The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

Portrait of Mikhail Vorontsov

George Dawe

No later than 1825

Oil on canvas

Mikhail Vorontsov (1782-1856), prince, a leading military figure and statesman, field marshal-general (1856), began his career in 1801 as a lieutenant in the Preobrazhensky Regiment. He distinguished himself in fights with Caucasian highlanders (1803), in the wars with France (1805, 1806-07) and the Russo-Turkish War (1806-12).

In the Patriotic War of 1812 Vorontsov commanded the composite grenadiers division within Bagration's Second Western Army. At the Battle of Borodino on 26 August Vorontsov's division found itself in the toughest part of the Russian position - on the front line defending Semionov's (Bagration's) fleches. At six in the morning the position was attacked by three divisions under Marshal Davout. Vorontsov's grenadiers fought to the last ditch and several times went onto the counter-attack, fighting hand-to-hand. Their commander was always at their head with a sword in his hand. Of the 4,000 men Vorontsov led at Borodino, only 300 survived; of the 18 field-officers only three remained. The commander himself was wounded.

Awarded the Order of St Anne 1st class for Borodino, Vorontsov left for his country estate to recuperate. He invited other wounded men to join him - some 50 officers and over 300 other ranks. He had barely recovered from his wounds when he again set off for the war and was appointed commander of the same composite grenadiers division in Chichagov's Third Army. In 1813, as part of the Northern Army, he participated in the battle with Ney's corps at Dennewitz and the "Battle of the Nations" at Leipzig. In the 1814 campaign he showed his valour in the battle at the town of Craonne, where for a day he held out against attacks from superior enemy forces commanded by Napoleon himself and withdrew only when ordered. For Craonne he was awarded the Order of St George 2nd class. Between 1815 and 1818 Mikhail Vorontsov was head of the Russian occupation corps in France. He was rewarded with the Order of St Vladimir1st class.