Édouard Detaille
1848–1912 · Realism & Academic
Biography
Soldiering was in Detaille’s blood: his grandfather had been a military supplier to Napoleon Bonaparte, and his aunt married an admiral. As an aspiring young artist he had the good fortune to attend the studio of Ernest Meissonier (pictured), under whom he studied from 1865 to 1869, and by the time he finished he was flooded with commissions. These included a book on the French army containing nearly 400 pictures (published in 1888).
From the page of The Regiment Passing