Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Feodor Dietz (1813-70) studied at Munich, and first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1838. He became painter to the court of Baden in 1839. In 1862 he was appointed professor at the Academy in Karlsruhe, but at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war he gave up his post to join the ambulance services at the front, and during the campaign he died at Gray in eastern France. He is esteemed as a leading battle painter of the German school.

Duke Ernest II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (1818-1893) was Queen Victoria’s brother-in-law. The profession of arms held little attraction for him, but he did lead his troops into action on one occasion during the First Schleswig War which lasted from 1848 to 1851. Battles took place in southern Denmark and northern Germany, rooted in the Schleswig-Holstein Question which contested the issue of who should control the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. At Eckernförde, on 5th April 1849, the Duke directed the defence of this harbour on the Baltic, as Danish warships came in and attacked. A report in the Illustrated London News of April 14th gave “due praise to the courage of the Danish sailors, and no less to the German commander, the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha for his judicious arrangements and the humanity and zeal which he displayed in his attempts to save the crew of the ‘Christian VIII'”.

The Duke appears full-length, mounted on a prancing white charger riding to the right on a steep slope with the smoke of battle thick on his left and infantry advancing on the right; behind him is a mounted officer and in the distance warships bombard the coast.