Edouard DETAILLE (Paris, 1848-1912) - Lot 76

Edouard DETAILLE (Paris, 1848-1912) Chasseur à cheval de la Garde impériale, 1870 India ink, watercolor, gouache, signed lower left and dated 1870. 23 x 13 cm. In a Louis XVI period gilded frame. This elegant depiction of a First Empire soldier dates from the early career of Edouard Detaille, one of the great masters of military painting. A pupil of Ernest Meissonier, Detaille began his career in 1867, winning his first medal at the 1868 Salon with La Halte des tambours. At the 1870 Salon, he took up the Napoleonic gesture - which was to remain one of his main sources of inspiration - with Engagement of the Cossacks and Honor Guards. But the war against Prussia, in which he participated heroically, was to prove decisive for his career. He would become the painter of this war, and one of the most celebrated artists in a France in full patriotic revival after its defeat. In 1888, Le Rêve, showing sleeping soldiers dreaming of France's past glories, became a national icon. Detaille attained the highest honors: president of the Société des Artistes français, grand officier of the Légion d'honneur, member and then president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, etc. He rubbed shoulders with the presidents of the French Academy of Fine Arts and the French Academy of Fine Arts. He rubbed shoulders with the Presidents of the Republic, to whom he showed the Salon, received the Prince of Wales, was invited to Moscow by Tsar Alexander III and even to Berlin by Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was a wealthy man, but also a generous one: it is said that he painted forgeries of Alphonse de Neuville to help his needy widow!