After the Battle of Sedan, when the French army was defeated and Napoleon III captured, the Prussian army advanced and surrounded Paris by 19 September 1870. The onset of combat in and around Paris deeply affected the artistic community. Some artists left Paris for other parts of France or left the country entirely, while others remained and enlisted to aid with the defense of Paris. Many joined official regiments, and some joined the numerous volunteer brigades, which formed an essential part of the resistance. Jacquet, along with artists James Tissot and Jehan Georges Vibert, joined the "tirailleurs de la Seine" (or sharpshooters of the Seine), a 115-man company. During his four months on the front, Jacquet made several drawings depicting the regiment's members, and he and others produced paintings depicting the fighting and its aftermath. This study depicts four young men in the uniform of the tirailleurs, with their distinctive caps, in a moment of leisure.
Signed in ink at right, "Jacquet"; inscribed in graphite at lower right, in different hands, "Gustave" and "Jacquet". Marked on verso with Jacquet's atelier stamp (Lugt 1397), applied to unsigned works in the artist's studio.
Thayer, John M. (John MacLane), 1944-2004, former owner.