Lucien Rousselot Paintings of Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry

These wonderful paintings by Lucien Rousselot are great #writingprompts.

Napoleonic paintings by Lucien Rousselot

Beginning next month, we’re presenting the art of Lucien Rousselot. He was a brilliant artist and “uniformologist.” While he painted the French Army through many periods, much of his work focuses on the uniforms of Bonaparte’s army.

Rousselot was quite prolific. So, we’re starting with some of the most exciting uniforms of the period. This collection, Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry: Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, 1804-1815, contains ninety-one plates of Bonaparte’s bravest and best-dressed officers and troops.

#WritingPrompts

These illustrations offer so much inspiration for not only analysts and military historians, but writers as well. Rousselot presents these soldiers in active scenes. They’re not merely standing still, posing for the artist. The plates offer the writer context, from riding in the field to walking in the park with a young lady on the arm. We see not only campaign uniforms but court and evening wear. We see combinations of officers, NCOs, and troopers. Rousselot gives us nobles on down to the guys in the line.

NOLA Connection

So, these plates depict French soldiers. What’s the tie-in to New Orleans? Consider two possibilities. First, we know a number of members of Napoleon’s army made their way to America, particularly New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. C.S. Forester even included a story about an encounter (after the war) between Horatio Hornblower and soldiers of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, in “Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies.”
The second possibility ties into the origin story of the Napoleon House Restaurant in the Vieux Carré. You may know the story, how Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans in 1814, and his friends took Bonaparte’s defeat and exile to Elba badly. They always said that someone should rescue the Emperor from Elba and bring him to New Orleans. Girod promised to give Bonaparte the family home, located on Chartres and St. Louis Streets. Bonaparte is part of the city’s romantic past.

Our approach

We’ll present Rousselot to you once a week. Posts will appear on NOLA History Guy blog, Patreon, and Substack, Eloquent Profanity, and the Book of Zucker. Since we consider these writing ideas, that’s the angle you’ll read. If you find the plates appealing from a technical or historic perspective, comment or email us and let’s discuss!

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