Stroehling’s work in the Royal Collection allows us to trace a rare example of continuity between the masters of the Dutch Golden Age and those of the early nineteenth century. Stroehling was brought up in Dusseldorf where a magnificent collection of the polished, classicising and elegant works (often on copper) by artists such as Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722) had been formed by Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine (1658-1716). Stroehling worked all over Europe but spend much of the first two decades of the nineteenth century in London; between 1810 and 1820 he was even styled ‘Historical Painter to the Prince of Wales’. Stroehling’s work elsewhere tended to be life-sized portraiture, but the Royal Collection has an important group of small-scale portraits on copper, executed with fine detail and a glossy finish; Joseph Farington perceptively referred to them as ‘painted in a Vanderwerfe manner’. Stroehling’s price for these ‘Cabinet Pictures’ was 200 guineas each, an impressive sum in the period even for a life-sized work. This is one of a pair of canvases (OM 1106-7, 407491-2) depicting continental allies, who came to London for the Congress of 1814, which is when they were painted probably at the behest of George IV. These two paintings were recorded in 1816 in the store at Carlton House with sequential numbers. They are both oil on canvas but have the glossy polish of Stroehling’s work on copper. Prince Blucher is shown on a grey horse in profile to the left wearing Field-Marshal's uniform and various insignia. A bugler on grey horse left, two other mounted soldiers right. Rifle, pouch, sash and drum in near foreground. Signed and dated: 'Stroehling 1814'