French Cuirassier
A French cuirassier with a red-plumed helmet and silver breastplate sits on a brown horse: Detaille's 1872 watercolor study of a uniform. Full commentary ↓
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French Cuirassier is a watercolor by Edouard Detaille (1872) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 34.9 × 24.8 cm.
In the pictureA cavalryman on a brown horse stands on brown paper. His silver breastplate, helmet with a red plume and black saddlecloth are drawn in fine detail, and behind him a troop of horsemen in the same dress is lined up in a blur. Only the grass underfoot is painted green; the rest is the color of the paper.
BackgroundCuirassiers were heavy cavalry who fought with steel plates on chest and back; they were a symbol of the Napoleonic era, but in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 their helplessness against firearms became clear. Detaille painted this watercolor in 1872, just after that war, and the same museum has a companion piece showing a dismounted cuirassier. Adding light in white on brown paper is a hallmark of his watercolors.
Puzzle tipMany pieces are plain brown paper, so solve by shape. Fit the silver breastplate, the red plume and the horse's head first, then sort the troop behind by the positions of their red dots (plumes). Finish the ground with the green grass pieces at the bottom. 48 pieces work well.
- Artist
- French, Paris 1848–1912 Paris
- Classification
- Drawings
- Medium
- Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 34.9 x 24.8cm
- Credit line
- Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- Three Cavalry Pictures by Detaille, Who Collected Real Uniforms
Edouard Detaille painted while collecting real military uniforms. A record of uniforms in three works: on horseback, dismounted, and on a peaceful march.
