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Jean-Charles Langlois, known as The Colonel (22 July 1789 – 1870) was a French
Langlois was born in
soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
and painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
.
Biography
Langlois was born in Beaumont-en-Auge
Beaumont-en-Auge (, literally ''Beaumont in Auge'') is a commune in the Calvados department in the Normandy region in northwestern France. The town hosts one of the last kaleidoscope manufacturers in France.
Population
Personalities
*Pierre-S ...
. He graduated from the École Polytechnique
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
in 1806 and fought, as an infantry officer at the battles of Wagram, Gerona and Waterloo with a bravery that had him seriously injured and appointed colonel at the young age of twenty-six.
After he retired on half-pay, Langlois devoted himself to painting. Studying with Girodet-Trioson
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (or ''de Roucy''), also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet (29 January 17679 December 1824),Long, George. (1851) ''The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopædia of the Society for the Diffusion of ...
, he specialized in landscapes, painting battles only, for he considered these to embody the most intense experiences life could offer. His paintings include the '' Fire of Moscow'', the ''Battle of Eylau
The Battle of Eylau, or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, was a bloody and strategically inconclusive battle on 7 and 8 February 1807 between Napoléon's ''Grande Armée'' and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Levin August von Bennigs ...
'', the ''Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile (also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay; french: Bataille d'Aboukir) was a major naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the Navy of the French Republic at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast off the ...
'', the ''Battle of Montereau
The Battle of Montereau (18 February 1814) was fought during the War of the Sixth Coalition between an Imperial French army led by Emperor Napoleon and a corps of Austrians and Württembergers commanded by Crown Prince Frederick William of ...
'', the ''Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino (). took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon ...
'', the ''Battle of Wagram
The Battle of Wagram (; 5–6 July 1809) was a military engagement of the Napoleonic Wars that ended in a costly but decisive victory for Emperor Napoleon's French and allied army against the Austrian army under the command of Archduke Charles ...
''. He also used photography
Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...
to document the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
where he traveled with photographer Léon-Eugène Méhédin
Léon-Eugène Méhédin (21 February 1828, L'Aigle – 4 March 1905, Bonsecours) was a French archaeologist, architect and photographer.
Méhédin's was a fervent Bonapartist and his career was greatly facilitated when he erected two triumphal ar ...
. He specialized in panoramic painting
Panoramic paintings are massive artworks that reveal a wide, all-encompassing view of a particular subject, often a landscape, military battle, or historical event. They became especially popular in the 19th century in Europe and the United St ...
after having seen the ''Panorama of Athens'' by the first French panorama painter Pierre Prévost. Many of his panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
s were destroyed during the Siege of Paris (1870–1871)
The siege of Paris took place from 19 September 1870 to 28 January 1871 and ended in the capture of the city by forces of the various states of the North German Confederation, led by the Kingdom of Prussia. The siege was the culmination of the ...
.
In 1873, Langlois' family bequeathed 256 paintings representing battles and military panoramas to the musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen is a fine arts museum in the French city of Caen, founded at the start of the 19th century and rebuilt in 1971 within the ducal château.
History
Opening
On September 1, 1801, the Minister of Interior Jean-A ...
.Rémy Desquesnes, ''Caen 1900-2000 : un siècle de vie'', Fécamp, Éditions des Falaises, 2001. These paintings were transferred in 1888 to the Pavillon des sociétés savantes, an 18th-century building spruced up at his niece's expense to house the Langlois museum.
Half of the works exhibited there were destroyed in 1944 during the Battle for Caen
The Battle for Caen (June to August 1944) is the name given to fighting between the British Second Army and the German in the Second World War for control of the city of Caen and its vicinity during the larger Battle of Normandy. The battles ...
. François-Émile de Lansac was his pupil.
Publications
* ''Explication du panorama et relation de la bataille de Solferino'', Paris, Dupont, 1866. * ''Explication du panorama représentant la bataille et la prise de Sébastopol'', Paris, Havard, 1861. * ''Explication du panorama, et relation de la Bataille des pyramides: extraite en partie des dictées de l'empereur à Sainte-Hélène, et des pièces officielles'', Paris, Didot, 1853. * ''Relation du combat et de la bataille d'Eylau'', Paris, Panorama des Champs-Élysées, 1844. * ''La Photographie, la peinture, la guerre: correspondance inédite de Crimée (1855-1856)'', Éd. François Robichon, André Rouillé, Nîmes, Chambon, 1992. * ''Panorama de la bataille de la Moskowa'', Paris, Ducessois, 1835. * ''Voyage pittoresque & militaire en Espagne: dédié à S.E. Mr. le Mal. Gouvion St. Cyr, pair de France'', Paris, Engelmann, 1826–1830.See also
*List of Orientalist artists
This is an incomplete list of artists who have produced works on Orientalist subjects, drawn from the Islamic world or other parts of Asia. Many artists listed on this page worked in many genres, and Orientalist subjects may not have formed a m ...
* Orientalism
In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist p ...
References
* ''Jean-Charles Langlois, 1789–1870: le Spectacle de l'histoire'', Paris; Caen, Somogy; Musée des beaux-arts de Caen, 2005. * ''Jean-Charles Langlois, Photographe normand et le panorama de la bataille de Solferino'', Hérouville Saint-Clair, ARDI; Caen, Archives départementales du Calvados, 2000. *Maxime Du Camp
Maxime Du Camp (8 February 1822 – 9 February 1894) was a French writer and photographer.
Biography
Born in Paris, Du Camp was the son of a successful surgeon. After finishing college, he indulged in his strong desire for travel, thanks to ...
, "À travers l'Orient", ''Souvenirs littéraires'', 1882.
* Claudette Derozier, ''La Campagne d'Espagne, lithographies de Bacler d'Albe et Langlois'', Paris, les Belles lettres, 1970.
* François Robichon, ''Le Colonel Langlois 1789-1870: un peintre de l'épopée napoléonienne: collections du Musée Langlois, Caen'', Paris, Bernard Giovanangeli, 2000.
* John Zarobell, "Jean-Charles Langlois's Panorama of Algiers (1833) and the prospective colonial landscape", ''Art history'', Oxford 26 (5) November 2003, p. 638–68, 785.
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langlois, Jean-Charles 1789 births 1870 deaths 19th-century French military personnel 19th-century French painters French male painters Orientalist painters People from Calvados (department) 19th-century French male artists