Wikimedia Commons • Public Domain
Street Scene near Antibes
Ernest Meissonier captures a street scene near Antibes on the French Riviera. Though famous for Napoleonic battle paintings, Meissonier also excelled at small genre scenes depicting everyday life with the same obsessive detail.
His technique involved building up layers of paint to achieve luminous surfaces. The Mediterranean landscape shows his sensitivity to light and atmosphere. Meissonier dominated Academic Art in Second Empire France, serving as the first president of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1890.
