Maurice, Count of Saxony (1696-1750) was the illegitimate son of Augustus III, King of Poland and elector of Saxony. He was a marshal of France, distinguished in the Seven Years' War and known as Marshal Saxe. Here he is wearing the uniform of the dragoons in his own army, with the star of the Order of the White Eagle.

This miniature derives from a pastel portrait of Marshal Saxe by Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702-1789) in Dresden (Staatliche Kunstsammerlungen), painted for Cardinal Richelieu and engraved by Antoine de Marcenay in 1766. Liotard was born in Geneva, the son of the goldsmith, Antoine Liotard, and twin brother of the engraver, Michel Liotard. He studied in Geneva and Paris, and travelled extensively in Italy. In Florence, he met Sir William Ponsonby, later earl of Bessborough, and they travelled together to Constantinople (Istanbul) where he stayed for five years. After more European travels, to Vienna where he painted Empress Maria Theresa and the imperial family and court, then to Venice, Darmstadt, Lyons and Geneva, Liotard settled in Paris from 1748 to 1753 and became painter to the king, Louis XV, and a member of the Academy of St Luke. He visited England twice, in 1753-5 and 1773-4 and was commissioned to paint the royal family (in pastel and in miniature). In 1777, he was invited to Vienna by the Emperor Joseph II. He published a treatise in 1781: Traité des principes et des règles de la peinture (Treaty on the principles and rules of painting) which argued for the importance of draughtsmanship and naturalistic colouring.