
Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) was a French painter and sculptor who became the most highly paid artist in 19th-century France, famous for meticulously detailed military paintings and Napoleonic subjects. His small-scale canvases featuring soldiers, cavalrymen, and historical scenes commanded enormous prices.
Meissonier's obsessive attention to detail led him to build model battlefields and study horses in motion. He was instrumental in founding the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His reputation declined sharply after the Impressionists changed the direction of French art.
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