Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”

Following the success of Couture's "Romans of the Decadence," the Second Republic government commissioned "The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792" for the Hall of Sessions of the National Assembly, aiming to associate the recent revolution of 1848 with the foundational revolutionary moment of over fifty years prior. The project was never completed though the unfinished canvas survives (Musée Départemental de l'Oise) along with many studies such as this. Although a figure who strikes this exact pose has not been identified in the composition as it exists today, the inscription in the artist's hand definitively connects it to the project. This carefully observed drawing of an upraised arm with its creased sleeve demonstrates an aspect of the artist's process in preparing a monumental painting: the study from life of models in various attitudes.