Portrait du comte Oscar de Ranchicourt partant pour la chasse à courre

Chassériau painted this equestrian portrait of the Comte Oscar de Ranchicourt departing for the hunt in 1854, just a year before his early death. By this date Chassériau's reputation was securely established and he attracted aristocratic clients for both formal portraits and genre scenes. The hunting subject placed the sitter within a specifically aristocratic leisure culture — the chase was not merely recreation but a mark of social identity — and the equestrian format connected the commission to a long tradition of aristocratic portraiture from Van Dyck and Velázquez. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts holds this canvas, which combines the portrait obligation of exact likeness with the genre requirement of vivid outdoor activity. Chassériau's mature handling gives the horse and landscape a vigour consistent with the Romantic energy of the subject.

The equestrian format allows Chassériau to deploy his mature brushwork in the rendering of the horse's musculature and movement and in the outdoor light of the hunting scene. The sitter's likeness is maintained with portrait precision while the composition is opened up by the landscape and the horse's dynamic presence. The colour is warm and the handling confident.