The sitter had a distinguished military career in the Austrian army, serving during the Seven Years' War, the War of Bavarian Succession, and the French Revolutionary Wars. He rose to the rank of Field Marshal and Colonel Proprietor of the 17th Infantry Regiment.
A similar unfinished miniature of the sitter by Füger was in the Clore Collection, sold Sotheby's, London, 17 March 1986, lot 67. For further portraits see R. Keil, Heinrich Friedrich Füger 1751-1818, Vienna, 2009, pp. 263, nos. 206-207.