Kneeling Cuirassier

This study relates to one of Guerin's most important Napoleonic commissions, The Death of the Maréchal Lannes, duc de Montebello (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Valenciennes). After the maréchal was mortally wounded in the battle of Essling on May 19, 1809, the French government commissioned Guérin to create a large painting commemorating the event. Intended to be displayed in the Salon of 1810, the canvas remained unfinished at the fall of the empire in 1814 and was still in Guérin's studio at his death. For this ambitious composition showing Lannes expiring
on the battlefield in the arms of Napoleon and surrounded by loyal soldiers, Guérin made individual studies for each figure, including this cuirassier kneeling by the maréchal's side. He wears a helmet in this drawing, a large fur hat in the compositional study, and is bareheaded in the painting.