Figure Study, crossed legs (1860s)

Ernest Meissonier prints bring the musketeers, smokers, readers and Napoleonic cavalry of nineteenth-century French painting into your home. Meissonier was one of the most successful artists of the Second Empire, famous for small paintings of astonishing detail and for his scenes of Napoleon's campaigns. Our collection of fine art prints includes 1807, Friedland, Halt at an Inn, his cavaliers and soldiers, scenes of painters and book lovers, and many oil sketches and studies.

About Ernest Meissonier

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier was born in Lyon on 21 February 1815. His father ran a dye business and expected him to follow, but at seventeen Ernest won permission to become an artist and entered the Paris studio of Léon Cogniet. He also taught himself by studying the Dutch masters in the Louvre. He earned his living at first by illustrating books for publishers such as Curmer, and his friends at the time included Honoré Daumier and Charles-François Daubigny.

His small genre scenes, with men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries playing chess, smoking pipes, reading or painting, made him famous; he was called the French Metsu after the Dutch painter Gabriel Metsu. In 1846 he bought a great house at Poissy, with winter and summer studios, and The Brawl (1855) was given by Napoleon III to Queen Victoria. In 1848 he served as a captain in the National Guard during the June Days, an experience he painted in The Barricade.

From 1859 he turned to military history, painting Napoleon III at Solferino, Campaign of France, 1814 and 1807, Friedland, with obsessive care for uniforms and horses. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1861, received the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and in 1890 became president of the new Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He died in Paris on 31 January 1891 and is buried at Poissy.

Style and Subjects

Meissonier painted in miniature. His pictures are often very small, yet every button, buckle and fold of cloth is exact. The critic John Ruskin examined his work under a magnifying glass, and Meissonier himself said his secret was not his brush but his habit of always looking: when painting the foot of an armchair, he would get up and study it.

His military scenes use the same precision on a grander scale, with cavalry, cuirassiers and Napoleon himself, and they made him an authority on historical uniforms. The collection also includes many of his small oil sketches of horses, figures and landscapes from the 1860s, along with landscapes like the Bridge at Poissy.

Famous Works

• Dutch Burghers (The Visit to the Burgomaster) (1834), Wallace Collection, London. His Salon debut, the first of his miniature genre paintings.
• An Artist Showing His Work (c. 1850), Wallace Collection, London. One of his favourite subjects, the world of painters and connoisseurs.
• The Brawl (1855), Royal Collection. A fight in a tavern, given by Napoleon III to Queen Victoria.
• Napoleon III at the Battle of Solferino (1863), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. His official commission for the 1859 Italian campaign, over three years in the making.
• Campaign of France, 1814 (1862–1864), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Napoleon on a desolate plain under a heavy grey sky, a small canvas of great breadth.
• 1807, Friedland (1875), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. His great Napoleonic battle, one of the works he spent years completing.
• The Siege of Paris (1884), Musée d'Orsay, Paris. A late history painting whose background recalls the Romantic manner of Delacroix.

Decorating with Meissonier Prints

Meissonier's small genre scenes reward close looking, so they are ideal for a study, library or reading corner. Prints like The Bibliophile or A Painter suit a book-lined room or home office, and look well in a group of two or three.

His military pictures, such as 1807, Friedland or The Sentry (La Vedette), make a strong statement in a den, hallway or dining room with dark wood and rich colours. The horse studies, like Bachelier, cheval de l'artiste, are a fine choice for riders and horse lovers.

FAQ

What art movement was Ernest Meissonier part of?

Meissonier was an academic painter, one of the three most successful artists of the Second Empire alongside Gérôme and Cabanel. He specialised in detailed genre scenes and military history.

What is Ernest Meissonier's most famous painting?

Campaign of France, 1814, in the Musée d'Orsay, is among his best-known works. 1807, Friedland, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is his most ambitious battle picture.

Why are Meissonier's paintings so detailed?

He studied every object from life and researched uniforms and horses obsessively. Many of his paintings are tiny, yet painted with microscopic precision, which earned him comparison with the Dutch masters.

Where can I see Meissonier's paintings?

The Wallace Collection in London holds sixteen of his works. Others are in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Royal Collection.

Related Artists

• Léon Cogniet: his teacher in Paris
• Gabriel Metsu: Dutch painter after whom Meissonier was nicknamed "the French Metsu"
• Jean-Léon Gérôme: with Meissonier and Cabanel, one of the three most successful artists of the Second Empire
• Charles-François Daubigny: friend from his early years in Paris
• Honoré Daumier: another friend from his early years