Coup de grâce Coup de grâce A coup de grâce (; French for "blow of mercy") is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. Examples of "coup de grâce" include shooting the heart or head (typically the back of the skull) of a wounded, but still living, person during an execution or by humanely killing a suffering, mortally wounded soldier, in war, for whom medical aid is not available. In pre-firearms eras the wounded were finished with
General Johnson Saving a Wounded French Officer from the Tomahawk of a North American Indian British, French and Indian War"). It depicts Major General Sir William Johnson preventing a North American native warrior from taking the scalp of Baron Dieskau, a wounded and defeated French soldier lying on the ground. West was an early American painter. He claimed to have been first taught how to make paint by a Native American childhood friend who demonstrated how paint could be made by mixing clay with bear grease. This painting has fine detail on the native figure, whose plucked scalp and tattoos are shown in more detail than the Europeans' uniforms. West is known to have had