Prussian General von Schoeler Pour le Merite Watercolor Kaiser Franz Grenadier

The piece is a small framed bust-length portrait of a bearded Prussian officer shown in left profile, identified by a documentary inscription on the reverse and confirmed by his own biography as Theodor Alexander Viktor Ernst von Schoeler (1807–1894), a Prussian general of the wars of unification and a recipient of the Pour le Mérite. The framed work measures approximately 6.5 by 5 inches (16.5 by 12.7 centimeters) overall, the portrait sight area being smaller within the mount.

The portrait is an original work in watercolour and pencil, drawn and then coloured by hand, the head and uniform finely modeled. The sitter is shown as a vigorous man in his prime, with dark hair beginning to grey and a full beard, his head turned to the viewer's left, wearing a dark military tunic with a red standing collar and shoulder pieces, the red facing colour picked out in pigment against the muted tones of the coat. A faint artist's signature and date are present at the lower margin; both are now indistinct, the date reading as approximately 1857. The uniform is that of a field officer and carries none of the high decorations he would later receive, consistent with a portrait taken around the time of his promotion to lieutenant colonel, long before his generalcy. The work is housed in a period gilt-wood frame with a red-painted and marbled liner and a gilt inner edge, under glass, with a wire hanger to the reverse.

Von Schoeler was born on 22 March 1807 in Potsdam into a distinguished Prussian military family: he was the son of General Moritz von Schoeler, Director of the General War Department, grandson of Major General Johann Friedrich Wilhelm von Schoeler, and nephew of General Friedrich von Schoeler, a Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle. He entered the Preußische Armee (Prussian Army) in 1824 and was commissioned the following year into the 2. Garde-Grenadier-Regiment — the Kaiser Franz Garde-Grenadier-Regiment Nr. 2, the very regiment named on the reverse of this portrait. He passed through a series of adjutant and staff appointments, served in the suppression of the Revolution von 1848/49 (German revolutions of 1848–49) and in the First Schleswig War at the Battle of Schleswig, and rose to major in 1853, lieutenant colonel and chief of staff of the VI Corps in 1857, and colonel in 1859, commanding the regiment that became Infantry Regiment Nr. 52.

Promoted major general in 1864, he led an infantry brigade in the Deutscher Krieg (Austro-Prussian War) of 1866 as part of the Army of the Elbe, distinguishing himself at Hühnerwasser and at the decisive Battle of Königgrätz, for which King Wilhelm I of Prussia awarded him the Pour le Mérite on the recommendation of General Herwarth von Bittenfeld. He then took command of the 8th Infantry Division and was promoted lieutenant general. In the Deutsch-Französischer Krieg (Franco-Prussian War) of 1870–71 he led the 8th Division at the Battle of Beaumont, at the Battle of Sedan — where his troops recaptured the contested suburb of Balan — and through the Siege of Paris, earning both classes of the Eisernes Kreuz (Iron Cross) and the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph. Decorated finally with the Order of the Red Eagle, First Class with Oak Leaves, he retired at his own request in April 1871 and was granted the character of General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry). He died on 23 August 1894 in Coburg at the age of eighty-seven, the same year as the Berlin publication cited on the reverse.

The reverse bears a handwritten label in old German cursive. Transcribed and expanded, it reads: Alexander von Schöler, Kgl. Pr. Generalleutnant, * 22. III. 1807 Potsdam, † 23. VIII. 1894 Coburg, gez. von [—]. Siehe: [Schwann], "Offizier-Aquarellen und Zeichnungen des Kgl. Pr. Kaiser Franz Garde-Grenadier-Regiments Nr. 2," Berlin 1894. In English: "Alexander von Schöler, Royal Prussian Lieutenant-General, born 22 March 1807 in Potsdam, died 23 August 1894 in Coburg; drawn by [—]. See: [Schwann], 'Officer watercolours and drawings of the Royal Prussian Kaiser Franz Guard Grenadier Regiment No. 2,' Berlin 1894." The genealogical symbols, the asterisk for geboren (born) and the cross for gestorben (died), are conventional, and Kgl. Pr. expands to Königlich Preußisch (Royal Prussian). The label thus records the sitter as a distinguished alumnus of the Kaiser Franz Guard Grenadiers and ties the portrait to that regiment's 1894 Berlin volume of officer portraits.

Condition is honest and shows clear age. The image carries overall toning and foxing to the paper, scattered small spots and minor surface losses across the uniform, and general fading of the signature and date. The reverse backing and identification label are water-stained, with old tide-lines and brown discoloration, though the text remains largely readable. The gilt frame shows rubbing, small losses, and edge wear consistent with age, and the glass is intact. The piece presents as a genuine and well-documented survivor rather than a restored example.

The collector appeal is considerable. This is an original, hand-executed period portrait of a fully identified Prussian general — a Pour le Mérite recipient who fought at Königgrätz, Beaumont, and Sedan and through the Siege of Paris, who commanded the 8th Infantry Division, and who came from a family of Prussian generals — supported by its own documentary label linking him to one of the senior Guard regiments of the Berlin garrison and to a published reference. Identified portraits of named Prussian generals of the unification era, and particularly of Pour le Mérite holders, are sought by collectors of Prussian military personalities, of the wars of 1866 and 1870–71, of Guard regiment material, and of nineteenth-century military portraiture, and are far scarcer than the anonymous officer images that fill the market.