Wounded Cuirassier, Theodore Gericault, 1814

Description of the picture:

Wounded cuirassier – Theodore Gericault. 1814. Oil on canvas. Two hundred ninety four x three hundred 50 eight cm

   The revolutionary romance in France of the early nineteenth century was rapidly replaced by the predation of Napoleonic conquests. And after the defeat of Napoleon, when the Bourbons returned to the throne, the French experienced something similar to nostalgia for those good times when words "freedom equality Brotherhood" not yet reincarnated into an empty sound, masking the whistle of guillotines in the squares of Paris.

   Creating a picture, Jericho could not imagine for himself that it would be a challenge to the royal house and an expression of the emotions of the people. The hero of the picture does not look defeated. Forced to leave the battlefield, he is full of pros. The hero holds a fighting stallion a little, but the gun is firmly squeezed in his hand.

   In the landscape surrounding the cuirassier, many see a hint of the Russian winter, the reason for the complete defeat of Napoleon and the beginning of his debacle.

   Vivid colors, clear stripes, sensuality of work attracted the most extensive public attention and dissatisfaction of the authorities. The shock of the defeat and collapse of everything that had not so long ago been the pride of French civilization is the main idea of ​​the picture. The creator expressed the whole palette of his own emotions in the year of the final approval of limited orders, class and the beginning of repressions in relation to all those who were involved in government of the times of the revolution and empire."