The Convalescent or The Casualty

Those painters who followed the example of Courbet found their work rejected or ignored. The memory of Courbet’s Wounded Man (Mus�e d’Orsay, Paris) was clearly evoked by the young Carolus-Duran in the Convalescent or The Casualty, a fragment of the large composition that had won Carolus-Duran the Prix Wicar in Lille in 1860, leading to a four-year stay in Italy. For the Salon, he settled for a waistcoat open to reveal a white shirt, whereas before he had boldly dressed his subject in a bright-red jacket.