The Charging Chasseur
The Charging Chasseur, or An Officer of the Chasseurs à Cheval de [la Garde Impériale|Imperial Horse Guards] Charging, is an oil painting on canvas executed ca. 1812 by the French painter Théodore Géricault, portraying a mounted Napoleonic cavalry officer who is ready to attack. It appeared at both the Salon of 1812 and Salon of 1814. It is now displayed in the Louvre, in Paris.
History and description
The painting was Géricault's first exhibited work and it is an example of his attempt to condense both movement and structure in his art. It represents French romanticism 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 and the Dragon (Rubens)|Saint George], 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.