A GROUP OF THREE FRENCH FRAMED PORTRAIT MEDALLIONS OF EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY FIGURES

Louis Lazare Hoche (1768-1797) was a French soldier who rose to the rank of général in the Revolutionary Army. During the French Revolutionary Wars campaigns in which he was involved included: the (Second) Battle of Wissembourg (1793-4), which enabled the French to take control of Alsace from the Prussians; defeat and capture of invading Royalists along France's west coast (1795); and the failed attempt to send troops to assist the United Irishmen against the British in 1796-7. Hoche had survived accusations of treason in 1794 - so common during the Reign of Terror - only to die of consumption at the age of just 29 in 1797.