[Mural paintings of Jean Coquet at the Desgenette Hospital in Lyon]

René Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes (1762-1837) became famous through two historical events: the first and most famous one is where he proved his courage by inoculating himself with the plague during the Syrian campaign in 1799; the second one, rarely represented in paintings, happened during the Russian retreat in 1812 when he was freed thanks to his reputation. Two wide fresco paintings facing each other in the hall of Desgenettes, a hospital built during World War Two, are witnesses of these two major events. Jean Coquet (1907-1990), a decorator, painter and glassblower, who worked at the Beaux-Arts School of Lyon, first as a decoration teacher than as its director, painted these two works of art. In 1946, he inserted them into an ornamental group constituted of ironworks, furniture, stained glass and ceramics. Two paintings from Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835) inspired these works: Bonaparte visiting the plague-stricken of Jaffa (1804) and Napoleon on the battlefield of Eylau (1808). With their academic composition and daring stylization those two frescoes represent in a modern and original way Desgenettes' life style, an archetype of what the military doctor is.