Jacques Cathelineau (1759-1793), généralissime vendéen

Girodet's portrait of Jacques Cathelineau from around 1816 depicts the peasant leader of the Vendéan royalist uprising of 1793—the man known as the Saint of Anjou who was the first generalissimo of the Catholic and Royal Army that fought the Revolution's forces in the Bocage. The Vendée uprising was among the bloodiest episodes of the Revolutionary period, and its leaders became heroes of the royalist and Catholic reaction that regained cultural prominence during the Restoration. Girodet's Restoration-period portraits of Vendéan leaders reflected his accommodation to the new political order after the fall of Napoleon, and the subject's royalist associations connected him to the Bourbon patronage that now dominated French official culture.

The portrait presents the peasant hero with the dignity of a military leader, Girodet's polished technique lending the humble origins of the sitter an air of martial authority.