DETAILLE, Jean Baptiste Edouard

French academic painter and military artist noted for his precision and realistic detail. He was regarded as the "semi-official artist of the French army".

He was born into a prosperous family from Picardy with a military background, his grandfather having served as an arms supplier to Napoleon. He studied under Ernest Meissonier and served in the Franco-Russian war. From 1867 until his death he exhibited regularly and successfully at the Paris SalonGLOSSARYIn the French language of the 18th and 19th centuries it designated an actual exhibition space, as well as the academic art exhibitions staged in the Salon d'Apollon of the Louvre since 1667. From 1737, the exhibitions took place biennially and, after the French Revolution, annually in the Salon Carré of the Louvre in Paris. Towards the end of the 19th century the official Salon jury was dissolved in order to make way for a committee of state-approved artists, i.e. former Salon members, who created the highly influential Société des Artistes Français.. The example of his teacher and his involvement in the Franco-Prussian War provided the themes for this conservative artist. He executed representations of actual war events and historical scenes from the time of Napoleon Bonaparte, paintings and two panoramas with monumental battle scenes, one of which was exhibited in Paris in 1882 and the other in Vienna in 1883.