Les Ordonnances, 1869.

1860s

A turn to battle subjects and high prices

In the 1860s he begins to paint historical and battle scenes from the time of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the conflicts of Emperor Napoleon III; his contemporaries valued them even more than his earlier genre works. In time he received 300,000 francs each for The Charge of the Cuirassiers and Napoleon I in 1814, and 200,000 for Napoleon III at Solferino, which its first owner later resold for 850,000.

1867 · Award

Commander of the Legion of Honour

June 1868

Travels to Antibes with easel, family and horses

In June 1868 Meissonier travels to Antibes with canvas and easel, his wife, son and daughter, and two of his horses, Bachelier and Lady Coningham. The light of the south attracted him: in the Antibes landscapes he, possibly under the influence of plein-air landscapists, abandoned for a while his obsession with historical authenticity in favour of something more spontaneous.

1870–1871

A colonel in besieged Paris

At the beginning of the war in 1870 he accompanies Napoleon III as an attaché of the imperial staff, and during the Siege of Paris he commands a regiment of the National Guard (other accounts call it a regiment de marche, one of the improvised units thrown up in the chaos of the war).

1870–1871

The conflict with Manet and the Impressionists

Édouard Manet served under his command during the Franco-Prussian War; their relations went badly then and only worsened later. His long conflict with the Impressionists did great harm to Meissonier’s reputation after his death.