Sir Robert Ker Porter's life was as varied and dramatic as his paintings. A noted author, artist, soldier and diplomat, he was born into a military family in Durham. After developing a reputation for his painting, he travelled extensively in Northern Europe, before accepting commissions for historical paintings from the Tzar of Russia in 1805. He travelled on to Sweden where he met Sir John Moore. Sir John found him congenial company and invited him to accompany the expedition to Spain that he was to lead. Having cultivated significant contacts and friends in Russia - not least of which the Czar himself - Sir Robert's seemingly endless travels brought him to St. Petersburg in 1811, marrying into the Russian nobility in 1812. Thus placed when Napoleon's juggernaut attacked in that year, he accompanied the Tzar's headquarters and wrote of his experiences in this book, which was published soon after the conclusion of the campaign. His writing is important for giving detail on the movements and thinking of the Russian leaders throughout the campaign, and his narration of the events is clear and distinctive. He also had an artist's eye for graphic details of the fighting and the panoramic expanse of the ground that the campaign was fought over.
