Five portrait miniatures on porcelain of members of an Austrian family: three young bothers - "Unterlieutenants" (2nd lieutenants; one star on collar) from the same Austrian infantry regiment (the same regimental's colors; 34th or 44th Regiment), their mother and their sister (dress and hairstyle of latters speak for 1850s).

Through profound search through annual issues of "Militär-Schematismus des österreichischen Kaiserthums" from the period after 1849 (distinctive stars on collar were introduced) we fiound these tree brothers in 1854, in 44th Infantry Regiment - Unterlieutenants Edmund, Ottokar and Ladislaus Rinek.
Ladislaus would die tragically in fourteen years, on 7th October 1869. Already an Oberleutnant (1st lieutenant), he was led by 32 soldiers of his 44th Regiment when he was unexpectedly attacked by rebels near the village of Rizano in Southern Dalmatia. The bandits pounced on him, who was severely wounded by a bullet, chopped him up with sabres and severed his head.
Which of the three brothers depicted is Ladislaus remains to be seen....

The portraits show all the stilistic criteria typical for works by the well-known Viennese miniaturist Richard Schwager (1822-1880).

Richard Schwager (1822 Duppau, Bohemia - 1880 Rodaun by Vienna) was born in Duppau in 1822 as the son of the civil tanning master Johann Schwager (1798-1871) and his wife Rosalia Tobisch (1794-1877).
After training as a pharmacist, Schwager began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1847. His teachers included Johann Ender and Leopold Kupelwieser. Schwager joined the circle of miniature painters around Moritz Daffinger and in 1851 was admitted to the Society of Fine Artists in Austria. His work consisted primarily of commissioned portrait paintings, for which he also traveled to France, England, Belgium, Russia and the German states. He created a large number of miniature portraits of wealthy burghers and members of the noble houses. In 1854 he made a miniature of Empress Elisabeth on behalf of Emperor Franz Joseph I. His works are now mostly in private hands and can occasionally be found at art auctions. Schwager showed special artistry in the depiction of children's faces.
He was one of the last miniaturists from the circle of Moritz Michael Daffinger and received the nickname "Miniature-Amerling" (Friedrich von Amerling was the best Viennese portraitist of the 19th century) for his virtuoso art of painting. From 1861 he was a member of the Vienna "Kuenstlerhaus".