The Charging Chasseur (An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging)
1812 · Oil on canvas · Musée du Louvre, Paris
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This print
About this work
- Artist
- Théodore Géricault (1791–1824)
- Year
- 1812
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 349 × 266 cm
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Movement
- Romanticism
An officer of the mounted chasseurs of Napoleon's Imperial Guard twists in the saddle to look back, sabre drawn, as his horse rears away from some unseen threat amid the smoke of battle. Géricault was twenty-one when he painted it in 1812, and it was his first exhibited work, shown at the Salon that year as an equestrian portrait of a Monsieur Dieudonné and again at the Salon of 1814. The twisting rider on a rearing horse recalls Rubens, and the vigorous handling and plunging diagonal already break with the calm order of David's school, pointing towards The Raft of the Medusa a few years later. After Géricault's death the canvas was bought by the Duke of Orléans, the future King Louis-Philippe, and the French national museums acquired it from his estate sale in 1851. It is in the Louvre.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A rearing horse and a twisting officer with a drawn sabre in battle smoke, a tall dramatic portrait for a hallway end, stairwell or study at 24×36 in black. A deep red, charcoal or warm grey wall; it reads from a distance.
- Style
- Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1812)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- intimate
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Printed edge to edge: a slim black or natural oak frame right to the image, or let the canvas wrap do the framing. Also available gallery-wrapped on canvas, ready to hang with no frame.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Charging Chasseur (An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging) in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Charging Chasseur (An Officer of the Imperial Horse Guards Charging) painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
