Three Cuirassiers

Toulouse-Lautrec produced military subjects less frequently than his cabaret and brothel scenes, but cuirassiers — heavy cavalry soldiers in their distinctive breastplate armor and plumed helmets — offered him figures whose professional performance quality matched that of his entertainers. Military reviews and parades were public spectacles in late nineteenth-century Paris, and the cuirassiers with their elaborate ceremonial armor were among their most visually compelling participants. Lautrec likely observed cavalry reviews at Longchamp or other Parisian venues where his social position as an aristocrat gave him privileged access to military ceremony.

Lautrec captures the horses and riders with the rapid linear energy he brought to all his studies of figures in motion — the horses' movement suggested through loose gestural marks rather than detailed anatomical description. The cuirassiers' metallic armor offers him sharp reflective accents within a composition dominated by the warmth of horse flesh and the blue of military uniform.