
Jean-Louis-Ernest MeissonierFrench, 1815–1891May one see it?
Minneapolis, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
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.
autumn 1861
Elected to the Institut de France
In autumn 1861 the members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts vote him into their number: he takes the chair of Abel de Pujol.
1864
Salon of 1864: “Solferino” and “1814”
At the Salon Meissonier shows The Emperor at Solferino, which took him more than three years to complete, and 1814.