Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”
1848
Medium
Fabricated black chalk
Dimensions
Sheet: 16 3/4 in. × 12 in. (42.5 × 30.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Roberta J.M. Olson and Alexander B.V. Johnson, 2018
Accession Number
2018.904.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Thomas Couture's *Study for “The Enrollment the Volunteers of 179”* (1848) is a preparatory drawing in black chalk, capturing the energy of a pivotal moment in French history. on a modest sheet measuring 16 3/4 × 12 inches, this work zooms in on expressive hands and arms—likely those of a volunteer swearing allegiance during the Revolution of 1792. Couture, a leading French academic painter known for his blend of neoclassicism and emerging Realism, produced this amid the revolutionary fervor of 1848, when his monumental painting of the same subject debuted at the Paris Salon, symbolizing natio...