Overall: 16.6cm (6.5in) x 15cm (6in)
Watercolour on paper. Quarter length profile portrait of Leutnant George Klincke, No. 2 Leib-Husaren von Rudorff, wearing mirliton with feather plume, cords, knots and tassels, fur lined royal blue pelisse with silver buttons and frogging, and a red dolman with fifteen rows of frogging and black collar. Indistinct ink inscription verso ‘Georg Como? Frei?fuar Klincke? / Leutnant ind In?grifireuw? Regiment und / Rudorf / *177. + 1807’.
The Zieten Hussar regiment was raised by Frederick the Great as the 2nd Hussar Regiment (H2) in 1743 and re-named for the outstanding cavalry general and the regiment’s first colonel Hans Joachim von Zieten. During the 1806 campaign of the War of the Fourth Coalition, the regiment was known as von Rudorff Hussars, and was renamed Life Hussar Regiment von Rudorff (No.2). The regiment surrendered at Ratekau after the Battle of Lübeck in which Prussian forces led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher were beaten while retreating from the defeat at the Battle of Jena–Auerstedt by Marshals Murat, Bernadotte, and Soult.
Read more
In 1807, around the time of the demise of Lieutenant Georg, the remains of the Regiment von Rudorff was amalgamated to create the 1st Brandenburg Hussar Regiment on 7 September 1808 (Husaren Regiment Nr.3). The regiment's 2nd squadron went over to the French and later served in the Russian Campaign of 1812, but swapped sides again to serve throughout the 1813-14 campaigns on the Coalition side, and participate in the climatic 1815 campaign.