Ernest Meissonier

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ernest Meissonier" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
Ernest Meissonier
Born	(1815-02-21)21 February 1815 Lyon, France
Died	31 January 1891(1891-01-31) (aged 75) Paris, France
Nationality	French
Known for	Painting, Sculpture
Movement	Academic art
Spouse	Emma Steinhel

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (French: [ʒɑ̃ lwi ɛʁnɛst mɛsɔnje]; 21 February 1815 – 31 January 1891) was a French academic painter and sculptor. He became famous for his depictions of Napoleon and his military sieges and manoeuvres in paintings acclaimed both for the artist's mastery of fine detail and his assiduous craftsmanship. The English art critic John Ruskin examined his work at length under a magnifying glass, "marvelling at Meissonier's manual dexterity and eye for fascinating minutiae."^[1] Meissonier enjoyed great success in his lifetime, becoming, with Gérôme and Cabanel, one of "the three most successful artists of the Second Empire."^[2]

Meissonier's work commanded enormous prices and in 1846 he purchased a great mansion in Poissy, sometimes known as the Grande Maison. The Grande Maison included two large studios, the atelier d'hiver, or winter workshop, situated on the top floor of the house, and at ground level, a glass-roofed annexe, the atelier d'été or summer workshop. Meissonier himself said that his house and temperament belonged to another age, and some, like the critic Paul Mantz for example, criticised the artist's seemingly limited repertoire. Like Alexandre Dumas, he excelled at depicting scenes of chivalry and masculine adventure against a backdrop of pre-Revolutionary and pre-industrial France, specialising in scenes from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century life.