Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”

Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”

Thomas Couture

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following the success of Couture's "Romans of the Decadence," the Second Republic government commissioned "The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792" for the Hall of Sessions of the National Assembly, aiming to associate the recent revolution of 1848 with the foundational revolutionary moment of over fifty years prior. The project was never completed though the unfinished canvas survives (Musée Départemental de l'Oise) along with many studies such as this. Although a figure who strikes this exact pose has not been identified in the composition as it exists today, the inscription in the artist's hand definitively connects it to the project. This carefully observed drawing of an upraised arm with its creased sleeve demonstrates an aspect of the artist's process in preparing a monumental painting: the study from life of models in various attitudes.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”Study for “The Enrollment of the Volunteers of 1792”

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.