Blant collected uniforms, muskets and peasant's clothing to have his models that posed for him wear. His work was popular and he was sought after both as a painter and an illustrator. While his large works were in oil, he also developed a reputation for his watercolors. In addition to his scenes of military campaigns and armies, he also painted maritime subjects, but warships rather than scenes of commerce. The Vendée From the beginning of his career, Le Blant was focused on memorializing the revolt that occurred against the French Revolution in the Vendée. This campaign against Revolutionary authority began in 1793 and ended in 1796 with the capture and execution of the last of its major leaders. Le Blant portrayed the leaders and occurrences of "La Vendée in virtually all of his major works. The Vendée revolt is one of the most controversial subjects in French history. A series of new edicts from the Revolutionary government in Paris is credited with setting off the revolt. These included an increase in taxation, conscription and a number of anti-clerical measures that the deeply religious people of the region resisted. The Revolutionary troops were spread thin in the region, and as the revolt widened the hastily formed Catholic Army of the Vendee managed to capture a number of towns and win a series of pitched battles. Eventually, through superior numbers and equipment, the forces of the Revolution defeated the rebels, and the campaign to put down the revolt became notoriously savage. While there were atrocities on both sides, the government in Paris wanted the rebellion to be put down savagely in order to discourage further revolts against its authority, and it was. The most modern academic estimates are that about a quarter of the population – men, women and children – were killed by the troops of the Revolutionary and their sympathizers. Le Blant's sympathies were clearly were with the counter-revolutionaries who rose up and fought against the French Revolution on behalf of the Royalty and Catholic Church. His first great Salon painting, exhibited when he was twenty-seven, was "Mort du général d’Elbée" or "The Death of General d’Elbée." In this work Le Blant depicted the wounded general's execution. General d’Elbée (1752–1794) had been mortally wounded and so after his capture, he was carried out to be executed on his chair, and his wife and family suffered the same fate. "The Execution