Portrait of the Second Lieutenant Charles Legrand
by GROS, Antoine-Jean, Oil on canvas, 249 x 162 cm
Charles Legrand was killed on 1 May 1801 in Madrid, when rebelling peasants attacked a regiment of Napoleon’s cuirassiers on the Puerta del Sol, tore the men from their horses, and knifed them. Legrand was the son of a French general. In his memory his parents commissioned Gros to execute a life-size portrait.