Eugène Louis Lami (12 January 1800 – 19 December 1890) was a French painter and lithographer. He was a painter of fashionable Paris during the period of the

July Monarchy The July Monarchy (), officially the ''Kingdom of France'' (), was a liberalism, liberal constitutional monarchy in France under , starting on 9 August 1830, after the revolutionary victory of the July Revolution of 1830, and ending 26 Februar ...

and the

Second French Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

and also made history paintings and illustrations for books such as Gil Blas and Manon Lescaut.

Biography

He worked at the studio of

Horace Vernet Émile Jean-Horace Vernet (; 30 June 178917 January 1863) more commonly known as simply Horace Vernet, was a French painter of battles, portraits, and Orientalist subjects. Biography Early career Vernet was born to Carle Vernet, another famo ...

then studied at the

École des Beaux-Arts ; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centu ...

in Paris with Camille Roqueplan and

Paul Delaroche Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (; Paris, 17 July 1797 – Paris, 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subje ...

under Antoine-Jean Gros. While there, he learned

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

technique from

Richard Parkes Bonington Richard Parkes Bonington (25 October 1802 – 23 September 1828) was an English Romantic landscape painter. He moved to France at the age of 14 and can also be considered as a French artist, and an intermediary bringing aspects of English styl ...

and later became a founding member of the Society of French Watercolorists. Lami began working in lithography and in 1819 produced a set of 40 lithographs depicting the Spanish cavalry. These, plus a collaboration with Vernet on a large set of lithographs titled ''Collections des uniformes des armées françaises de 1791 à 1814'' helped build a reputation for doing military scenes which transferred to his paintings. His 1829 portrait of the English king,

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

as he was being led to imprisonment in Carisbrooke Castle was purchased by King

Louis-Philippe of France Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his thron ...

and was on display in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (, ) is the lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral French Parliament under the French Fifth Republic, Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (France), Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known ...

from 1848 to 1969. Today, this work along with his 1840 painting of Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon-Penthièvre,

duchesse d'Orléans Duchesse (Duchesse satin) was a soft, heavy, and glossy satin cloth made in France. Weave Duchesse was produced with a satin weave with fine silk threads using a higher number of threads per square inch in the warp with at least seven floati ...

in the gardens of the

Tuileries Palace The Tuileries Palace (, ) was a palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the Seine, directly in the west-front of the Louvre Palace. It was the Parisian residence of most French monarchs, from Henri IV to Napoleon III, until it was b ...

are both in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

. Lami's painting of the ''

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

'', depicting the moment of the American victory over the British on 26 January 1815 is in the Louisiana State Museum at The Cabildo in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. He also painted a scene of the storming of Redoubt #10 during the

Siege of Yorktown The siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender at Yorktown, was the final battle of the American Revolutionary War. It was won decisively by the Continental Army, led by George Washington, with support from the Ma ...

Gallery

File:Lami, Eugène Louis, Grenadier of the Royal Guard, ca. 1817.jpg, ''Grenadier of the Royal Guard'', ca. 1817,

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 117,000 work ...

File:Combat de Puerto de Miravete, 30 septembre 1823.jpg, ''Battle of Miravete'', 1823 File:Charles I Lami Louvre Inv5579.jpg, '' Charles I Receiving a Rose'', 1829 File:Eugène Lami - Scène de carnaval, place de la Concorde - P1957 - Musée Carnavalet.jpg, ''Scène de carnaval, place de la Concord'', 1834 File:EL Lami - Storming of redoubt 10 during the Siege of Yorktown (1840).jpg, '' The Storming of Redoubt No. 10'', 1840 File:Eugène-Louis Lami 001.jpg, '' The Arrival of Queen Victoria at the Château d'Eu'', 1843 File:Eugène Louis Lami - Opening of the Great Exhibition, 1 May 1851 - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Opening of the Great Exhibition'', 1851 File:La bataille de l'Alma, le 20 septembre 1854.jpg, '' The Battle of the Alma'', 1855 File:Lami, Eugène Louis, Entry to a Drawing Room at Marlborough House, 1871.jpg, ''Entry to a Drawing Room at

Marlborough House Marlborough House, a Grade I listed mansion on The Mall in St James's, City of Westminster, London, is the headquarters of the Commonwealth of Nations and the seat of the Commonwealth Secretariat. It is adjacent to St James's Palace. The ...

'', 1871, Princeton University Art Museum File:Eugène-Louis Lami 002.jpg, Watercolour painting of ''The Great Hall at the Château de Ferrières'', estate of

James Mayer de Rothschild Baron James Mayer de Rothschild (born Jakob Mayer Rothschild; 15 May 1792 – 15 November 1868) was a French banker and the founder of the French branch of the prominent Rothschild family. He was born in the Holy Roman Empire. Early life He ...

References

*''19th Century Watercolors'' by Christopher Finch (1991) Abbeville Publishing Group (Abbeville Press, Inc.)

External links

*
Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Lami (see index) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lami, Eugene 1800 births 1890 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters French lithographers Pupils of Antoine-Jean Gros 19th-century French male artists