Soldier Holding a Parasol

Nicolas Toussaint Charlet made this pencil drawing, Soldier Holding a Parasol, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It's useful to consider it as a product of post-revolutionary France. Charlet was known for his sympathetic, unromantic, and sometimes comic depictions of ordinary soldiers, made at a time when popular imagery still tended towards heroic depictions of war. The artist's interest in the everyday lives of rank-and-file soldiers is reflected in this work. The soldier appears in full military dress but his delicate parasol and foppish expression are clearly at odds with our expectations of military masculinity. Was Charlet using humor to challenge the prevailing representation of the military? Archival material such as letters, diaries, military records, and popular print ephemera would allow us to further explore the cultural values and social tensions that underpin this seemingly simple drawing.