Eugène LAMI - Study for the Battle of Hondshoote.

Eugene LAMI (1800.1890).

Original work – Study for the Battle of Hondshoote.

Oil on paper.

Superb oil study of his painting The Battle of Hondshoote , now kept in the collections of the Château de Versailles.

Oblong format: 20 x 33 cm

Slight defect in the lower left corner.

The Battle of Hondschoote pitted French troops against those of the first coalition on September 8, 1793. The victory of the armies of General Houchard over the troops of the Duke of York and Albany had a considerable impact in these revolutionary years.

Eugène Lami was born into a family of Empire officials, young Eugène Lami was marked by military reviews, the spectacle of uniforms and the splendor of the imperial regime then at its peak. At the age of 10, he would have even been deeply impressed by a meeting with Napoleon during a visit to the Museum. His family being linked to the Vernets, it was quite natural that he became a friend of Horace, who shared his admiration and enthusiasm. In 1817, Eugène Lami entered the École des Beaux-Arts, where he studied under Gros alongside Delaroche and the British watercolorist Bonington, with whom he remained very close. He met Géricault, Chateaubriand and Auber in the workshop of Horace Vernet, which was then a center of liberal opposition to the regime. He naturally began his artistic career as a collaborator of Horace Vernet by illustrating the Collection of uniforms of the French armies from 1791 to 1814 .

He participated for the first time in the Salon des Artistes Français in 1824, with a “ Study of horses ” and exhibited there every year until 1878, except between 1844 and 1847, a period when he worked in Chantilly. Decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1837, he was promoted to Officer in 1862 and won a second class medal at the Salon of 1855. He visited London in 1826, a must for any so-called 'modern' artist. Despite his liberal opinions, he was chosen to illustrate the famous “ Quadrille of Marie Stuart ”, a memorable ball given at the Tuileries by the Duchess of Berry in 1829. From then on, Eugène Lami turned towards genre scenes, painting elegant life of the court and the bourgeoisie. He turned to watercolor, which was to become his preferred technique for the rest of his life. He produced numerous illustrations for the works of Alfred de Musset which were presented at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1859, 1861 and 1867, and also illustrated Manon Lescaut (Salon of 1868) and Gil Blas (Salon of 1878).

It was Horace Vernet who introduced him to the Duke of Orléans, with whom he quickly formed a true friendship. Logically, the July Monarchy made him the official chronicler of the court. Lami also received numerous commissions for the Museum of French History in Versailles and, like Vernet, showed himself to be a skilled battle painter. Driven into exile by the February Revolution, he settled in London in 1848, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He quickly achieved great success with British high society. Returning to France in 1852, Lami began a new, even more prestigious official career under the Second Empire. Official decorator of the Château de Ferrières for Baron James de Rotschild, he advocated a return to Venetian rococo.

In 1879, he was one of the founding members of the Society of French Watercolorists. The craze for watercolors was such at this time that a group of artists, finding their works too cramped in the drawing rooms of the Salon, decided to exhibit in a place reserved for this purpose. Forty artists will exhibit during the first edition.