The Siege Of Paris (Meissonier)
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The Siege Of Paris (Meissonier)
''The Siege of Paris'' is an oil on canvas painting by French painter Ernest Meissonier, created in 1884. It represents the Siege of Paris (1870–1871), during the Franco-Prussian War. It is held at the Musée d'Orsay, in Paris. History and description After the surrender of Napoleon III, at Sedan, on September 2, 1870, the Prussians reached the outskirts of Paris, which was under their siege until January 28, 1871. Several exit attempts to loosen the German grip ended in bitter failures. The Parisians endured the rigors of the siege with courage, until the failure of the battles of January 1871 after which the Government of National Defense decided to negotiate an armistice with the Germans. Meissonnier conceived this work as a memorial to the French who died at the siege of Paris, mixing realism and allegory. He explained: “I wanted to make a sort of heroic symphony of France." The painting is built on an opposition between the central figure of the city of Paris, represe ...
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French Language
French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-Romance, a descendant of the Latin spoken in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien language, Francien) largely supplanted. It was also substratum (linguistics), influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul and by the Germanic languages, Germanic Frankish language of the post-Roman Franks, Frankish invaders. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, it was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, and numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole, were established. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Fra ...
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Ernest Meissonier
Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (; 21 February 181531 January 1891) was a French academic painter and sculptor. He became famous for his depictions of Napoleon and his military sieges and manoeuvres in paintings acclaimed both for the artist's mastery of fine detail and his assiduous craftsmanship. The English art critic John Ruskin examined his work at length under a magnifying glass, "marvelling at Meissonier's manual dexterity and eye for fascinating minutiae." Meissonier enjoyed great success in his lifetime, becoming, with Gérôme and Cabanel, one of "the three most successful artists of the Second Empire." Meissonier's work commanded enormous prices and in 1846 he purchased a great mansion in Poissy, sometimes known as the Grande Maison. The Grande Maison included two large studios, the ''atelier d'hiver'', or ''winter workshop'', situated on the top floor of the house, and at ground level, a glass-roofed annexe, the ''atelier d'été'' or ''summer workshop''. Meissoni ...
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Musée D'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) () is a museum in Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Monet, Claude Monet, Manet, Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Alfred Sisley, Sisley, Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh, van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986. It is one of the list of largest art museums, largest art museums in Europe. In 2022 the museum had 3.2 million visitors, up from 1.4 million in 2021. It was the sixth-most-visited art museum in the world in 2022, and second-most-visited art museum in France ...
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Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, fourth-most populous city in the European Union and the List of cities proper by population density, 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2022. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of the world's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, culture, Fashion capital, fashion, and gastronomy. Because of its leading role in the French art, arts and Science and technology in France, sciences and its early adoption of extensive street lighting, Paris became known as the City of Light in the 19th century. The City of Paris is the centre of the ĂŽle-de-France region, or Paris Region, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 inhabitants in January 2023, or ...
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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 Franco-Prussian War, which saw the Second French Empire attempt to reassert its dominance over continental Europe by declaring war on the North German Confederation. The Prussian-dominated North German Confederation had recently emerged victorious in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, which led to the questioning of France's status as the dominant power of continental Europe. With a declaration of war by the Corps législatif, French parliament on 16 July 1870, Imperial France soon faced a series of defeats at German hands over the following months, leading to the Battle of Sedan, which, on 2 September 1870, saw a decisive defeat of French forces and the capture of the French emperor, Napoleon III. With the capture of Napoleon III, the Second ...
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Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 January 1871, the conflict was caused primarily by France's determination to reassert its dominant position in continental Europe, which appeared in question following the decisive Austro-Prussian War, Prussian victory over Austria in 1866. According to some historians, Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck deliberately provoked the French into declaring war on Prussia in order to induce four independent southern German states—Grand Duchy of Baden, Baden, Kingdom of Württemberg, Württemberg, Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria and Grand Duchy of Hesse, Hesse-Darmstadt—to join the North German Confederation. Other historians contend that Bismarck exploited the circumstances as they unfolded. All agree that Bismarck recognized the potential for new ...
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Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last monarch of France. Prior to his reign, Napoleon III was known as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He was born at the height of the First French Empire in the Tuileries Palace at Paris, the son of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland (r. 1806–1810), and Hortense de Beauharnais, and paternal nephew of the reigning Emperor Napoleon I. It would only be two months following his birth that he, in accordance with Napoleon I's dynastic naming policy, would be bestowed the name of Charles-Louis Napoleon, however, shortly thereafter, Charles was removed from his name. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was the first and only president of the French Second Republic, 1848 French presidential election, elected in 1848. He 1851 French coup d'état, seized power by force i ...
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Battle Of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War from 1 to 2 September 1870. Resulting in the capture of Napoleon III, Emperor Napoleon III and over a hundred thousand troops, it effectively decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued under a Government of National Defense, new French government. The 130,000-strong French Army of Châlons, commanded by List of Marshals of France, Marshal Patrice de MacMahon and accompanied by Napoleon III, was attempting to lift the Siege of Metz (1870), siege of Metz, only to be caught by the Prussian Fourth Army and defeated at the Battle of Beaumont on 30 August. Commanded by ''Generalfeldmarschall'' Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, Helmuth von Moltke and accompanied by Prussian King Wilhelm I of Germany, Wilhelm I and Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the Fourth Army and the Prussian Third Army encircled MacMahon's army at Sedan, France, Sedan in a battle of annihilation. Marshal MacMaho ...
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German Empire
The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich; . from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the German revolution of 1918–1919, November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a Weimar Republic, republic. The German Empire consisted of States of the German Empire, 25 states, each with its own nobility: four constituent Monarchy, kingdoms, six Grand duchy, grand duchies, five Duchy, duchies (six before 1876), seven Principality, principalities, three Free imperial city, free Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City-state, cities, and Alsace–Lorraine, one imperial territory. While Prussia was one of four kingdoms in the realm, it contained about two-thirds ...
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Battle Of Villiers
The Battle of Villiers, also called the Battle of Champigny, was the largest of the French sorties from besieged Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Background After news reached Paris of the French defeat at the battle of Le Bourget and the surrender of Metz, morale began to drop in the city. Attempting to counter the grim mood, General Louis Jules Trochu decided to attempt a breakout which could possibly link up with the French Army of the Loire. French attack On 30 November Auguste-Alexandre Ducrot led 52,000 men towards the villages of Champigny and Bry on the east bank of the Marne River. This section of the German lines was held by the WĂĽrttemberg Division of the Prussian 3rd Army. On the 29th the Marne had flooded and a French reconnaissance attack turned into a disaster; 1,300 troops were lost. The main attack was to come the next day followed by a series of diversionary attacks. French artillery drove German advance units from the villages of Bry and Champign ...
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Henri Regnault
Alexandre Georges Henri Regnault (31 October 1843 – 19 January 1871) was a French painter. Biography Regnault was born in Paris, the son of Henri Victor Regnault. On leaving school he successively entered the studios of Antoine Montfort, Louis Lamothe and Alexandre Cabanel, was beaten for the ''Prix de Rome'' (1863) by Joseph Layraud and Xaiver Monchablon, and in 1864 exhibited two unremarkable portraits at the Paris Salon. In 1866, however, he carried off the ''Prix de Rome'' with a work of unusual force and distinction ''Thetis bringing the Arms forged by Vulcan to Achilles'' ( École de Beaux-Arts). The past in Italy did not touch him, but his illustrations to Wey's ''Rome'' show how observant he was of actual life and manners; even his ''Automedon'' (School of Fine Arts), executed in obedience to Academical regulations, was but a lively recollection of a carnival horse-race. At Rome, moreover, Regnault came into contact with the modern Hispano-Italian school, a schoo ...
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1884 Paintings
Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera ''Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy Theatre, London. * January 7 – German microbiologist Robert Koch isolates ''Vibrio cholerae'', the cholera bacillus, working in India. * January 18 – William Price attempts to cremate his dead baby son, Iesu Grist, in Wales. Later tried and acquitted on the grounds that cremation is not contrary to English law, he is thus able to carry out the ceremony (the first in the United Kingdom in modern times) on March 14, setting a legal precedent. * January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the ''Cornhill Magazine'' (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the ''Mary Celeste'' in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the ...
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