The portrait was drawn from life four months before the death of Alexander Suvorov and was the last lifetime portrait of the commander. The pastel was performed in Prague, where Suvorov stayed for a while as he went to Russia after the Swiss Expedition. The J.H. Schmidt's portrait became a base for numerous repetitions and derivatives; the engravings of A.A. Frolov and N.I. Utkin are the most well-known among them.
Suvorov is portrayed in the white Austrian uniform of a field marshal; in later repetitions artists depicted Suvorov in the Russian uniform and with other decorations.