Grenadier of the Royal Guard,

ca. 1817

Lami was a highly decorated artist who exhibited regularly at the Salon throughout his long career. He is remembered for his elegant watercolors depicting Parisian society during the Constitutional Monarchy under the reign of Louis-Philippe (1830-48). Once dubbed by Baudelaire as "the poet of dandy-ism," Lami gained early acclaim working in collaboration with the painter Horace Vernet on a history of French military uniforms, published in two volumes of hand-colored lithographs. The first volume records one hundred historical Napoleonic uniforms from 1791 to 1814, and the second contains fifty illustrations documenting contemporary uniforms of the Bourbon Restoration between 1814 and 1824, all based on detailed watercolors such as this. The distinctive bearskin hat and red epaulettes identify this soldier as a Grenadier of the Royal Guard, the elite troops under the command of King Charles X.