Biography

French painter and printmaker. He studied under Anne-Louis Girodet and Antoine-Jean Gros at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, which he entered on 30 January 1817. With the emergence of the Romantic movement he interrupted his Neo-classical training to become a disciple and friend of Delacroix and Géricault. Like Delacroix, he first exhibited at the Salon in 1822, and his submission included the depiction of an eminently Romantic subject, Episodes from a Shipwreck. However, his greatest success of the 1820s, which established him as a marine painter, was the Fire on the Kent, which he exhibited at the Salon of 1827. Following this direction he cultivated his talent for historical naval subjects on a large scale, becoming France's leading painter of sea battles. His style is characterized by the faithful rendering of water, the use of impasto and the careful execution of motifs.

He was much patronized by King Louis-Philippe, for whom he executed a series of large canvases at Versailles depicting the history of the French navy. His fame in the Paris of Louis-Philippe and of Louis-Napoléon, in the St. Petersburg of Nicholas I, the Berlin of Frederick-William IV and the London of prince Consort stood extremely high and connoisseurs placed him on a level with Vernet. His Emperor bestowed on him the Legion of Honour and a barony. However, admired throughout Europe for two decades, he has quickly fallen into oblivion.