''The Charging

Chasseur ''Chasseur'' ( , ), a French term for "hunter", is the designation given to certain regiments of French and Belgian light infantry () or light cavalry () to denote troops trained for rapid action. History This branch of the French Army orig ...

'', or ''An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

on canvas of about 1812 by the French painter

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French Painting, painter and Lithography, lithographer, whose best-known painting is ''The Raft of the Medusa''. Although he died young, he was one of the pi ...

, portraying a mounted

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

ic cavalry officer who is ready to attack. The painting was Géricault's first exhibited work and it is an example of Géricault's attempt to condense both movement and structure in its art. It represents French

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

and has a motif similar to Jacques-Louis David's '' Napoleon Crossing the Alps'', but non- classical characteristics of the picture include its dramatic diagonal arrangement and vigorous paint handling. In ''The Charging Chasseur'', the horse appears to be rearing away from an unseen attacker. The turning figure on a rearing horse is derived from the large early Rubens ''

Saint George Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldie ...

'' ( Museo del Prado, 1605–07), though there the view is from the side. Géricault would continue to move away from classicism, as exemplified in his later masterpiece ''

The Raft of the Medusa ''The Raft of the Medusa'' (french: Le Radeau de la Méduse ) – originally titled ''Scène de Naufrage'' (''Shipwreck Scene'') – is an oil painting of 1818–19 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791� ...

'' (1818–19).

References

Sources

* Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate. ''Nineteenth Century European Art''. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ: 2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Charging Chasseur, The 1812 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by French artists Paintings by Théodore Géricault War paintings Horses in art