Portrait of Second Lieutenant Charles Legrand

This 1810 portrait of Second Lieutenant Charles Legrand at LACMA records a junior French officer during the height of the Napoleonic Empire. Gros’s portraits of young officers capture the martial ambition and Revolutionary idealism that motivated the generation who fought Napoleon’s wars across Europe. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays monumental scale, vivid reportorial color, Romantic energy in figure groups, combining David's Neoclassical training with the excitement of actual military events.

The young officer is presented with the confidence appropriate to his military status. Gros’s rendering of the uniform and the sitter’s youthful features combines military precision with the warmth characteristic of his portrait style.