Del Prado Horse Grenadier, 1810: The Heavy Cavalry Without a Cuirass

Del Prado · France · 1810

The bearskin, dark horse and blue coat convey weight without a shining breastplate. This Guard cavalryman is a reminder that heavy cavalry was not defined by armour alone.

The horse and rider form a dark, compact silhouette. Pale details on the coat and the yellow-edged horse furniture provide the contrast, while the red plume carries the eye upward. The sword sits relatively low beside the rider, giving the figure a more contained appearance than the rearing cuirassier.

The Guard’s horse grenadiers were a distinct heavy-cavalry formation. Their tall bearskins differed from the fur headgear of the mounted chasseurs, and their dress did not include the cuirass that makes other French heavy cavalry immediately recognisable. The word “grenadier” here is a regimental identity; the figure is not illustrating a rider preparing to throw a grenade.

Keeping a formation under fire

Accounts of the horse grenadiers at Eylau in 1807 became part of the regiment’s reputation. The episode is associated with General Lepic and men enduring artillery fire before action. The Fondation Napoléon’s discussion of fear in battle uses such accounts to examine behaviour under danger, rather than treating soldiers as immune to it.

That perspective suits this apparently composed rider. Discipline was not the absence of fear. It was the effort to continue functioning while frightened, tired or exposed. The quiet pose can carry that thought without being assigned to Eylau itself: the model’s stated date is 1810.

The miniature is especially effective in a group with some visual space around the headgear. The tall bearskin supplies the rider’s balance; surrounding it with raised swords and lances can make the outline harder to read.

For identification, preserve the full title “horse grenadier”. Reducing it to “French grenadier” risks mixing this mounted subject with the far more familiar infantry of the Guard. A picture of the whole horse and rider is more useful than a cropped head-and-shoulders view.

Before purchase, inspect the plume and the blade alongside the horse. Dark paint can conceal a repaired joint in a low-resolution listing. The model’s appeal lies in the complete silhouette, not simply in the famous bearskin.

Browse the Del Prado Figure Catalog →