Artist edouard detaille biography

Jean-Baptiste Édouard Detaille was a French academic painter and military artist noted for his precision and realistic detail.

Artist edouard detaille biography

He was regarded as the "semi-official artist of the French army."

Detaille grew up in a prosperous military family in Picardy; his grandfather had been an arms supplier for Napoleon. An amateur artist who was friends with a number of collectors and painters, including Horace Vernet, Detaille's father encouraged his son's artistic endeavors.

He began his artistic studies at age seventeen under the famous military painter Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier; he had originally approached him to ask for an introduction to the renowned Alexandre Cabanel but Meissonier decided to teach Detaille himself.

Meissonier became a major influence on his style, and it was he who inculcated an appreciation for accuracy and precision in Detaille.

Detaille made his debut as an artist at the Salon—the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux