Drummer Boy Attacked by a Cossack

Théodore Gericault|Jean Victor Schnetz

ca. 1817 · Brush, brown wash, heightened with white over black chalk on brown wove paper · Drawings and Prints

This drawing shows the stylistic influence of Gericault, whom Schnetz befriended in Italy in 1817. Both artists produced high-contrast drawings using white gouache around this time. Although this work was most likely made after the fall of Napoleon, the identification of the attacking horseman as a Cossack—a member of a Slavic military unit—suggests the subject’s association with the French invasion of Russia in 1812.

Artist

Théodore Gericault|Jean Victor Schnetz

Date

ca. 1817

Medium

Brush, brown wash, heightened with white over black chalk on brown wove paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Joan Whitney Payson, 1976