Cuirassier with Drawn Sword

Public Domain

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

modeled c. 1875 (cast after 1891)

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
French, 1815-1891

Ernest Meissonier was best known for his exquisitely rendered genre scenes, which drew inspiration from the Dutch masters and were praised for their “microscopic” perfection. But he was also a serious student of military subjects, creating a series of canvases on major episodes in the life of Napoleon I. For his battle scenes, Meissonier fashioned wax sculptures of horses and military figures, such as this cavalryman (known as a cuirassier), which served as a study for the painting 1807, Friedland (exhibited in the Salon of 1875). First shown to the public in 1891, Meissonier’s waxes were later cast in bronze to preserve the artist’s conception.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (Cast by)
Title: Cuirassier with Drawn Sword
Place: France (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Modeled 1870–1880
Medium: Bronze
Inscriptions: "Meissonier" handwritten by artist on proper left back of base Stamped impression: "6" inside a circle on proper right back of base Foundry mark: "Cire Perdue/ Siot - Decauville" on proper right back of base
Dimensions: 49.5 × 62.5 × 21 cm (19 3/4 × 24 5/8 × 8 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Arthur Rubloff
Reference Number: 1988.36.11
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/70991/manifest.json

Constance Cain Hungerford, “Ernest Meissonier’s First Military Paintings: 1: The Emperor Napoleon III at the Battle of Solferino,” Arts Magazine 54, 5 (January 1980), pp. 89-97.
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, “Le Voyageur de Meissonier,” La Revue du Louvre 35, 2 (1985), pp. 129-35.
John Milner, The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late Seventeenth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 175, 177.
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, “Meissonier sculpteur,” Ernest Meissonier: Rétrospective (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1993), pp. 236-41, 254, no. 160.
Constance Cain Hungerford, Ernest Meissonier, Master in His Genre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 208 (ill.).

Arthur Rubloff (d. 1986), Chicago, by 1986; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1988.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.