Charles Meynier

Charles Meynier (1763 or 1768, Paris – 1832, Paris) was a French painter of historical subjects in the late 18th and early 19th century. He was a contemporary of Antoine-Jean Gros und Jacques-Louis David.

Portrait by Louis-Léopold Boilly

Biography
Detail : Napoleon on the Isle of Lobau

Meynier was the son of a tailor. Already at a young age he was trained by Pierre-Philippe Choffard. As a student of François-André Vincent, Meynier won the second prize in the 1789 prix de Rome competition; Girodet won. He became a member of the Académie de France à Rome. In 1793 he went back to Paris.

He made designs for the bas-reliefs and statues on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel and the Paris Bourse. From 1816 onward, he was a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. In 1819 Meynier was appointed teacher at the École des Beaux-Arts.[1] Like his wife he died of cholera.

Works
Napoleon passing through the Brandenburg Gate after the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt (1806). Painted by Charles Meynier in 1810.
  • "Milo of Croton", 1795 Oil on Canvas Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Montreal, Quebec
  • Nine canvases of the Muses, commissioned by François Boyer-Fonfrède,[2] but after his bankruptcy they were purchased by General Nicolas Antoine Xavier Castella de Berlens and transferred to his château de Wallenried in Jura, Switzerland, where they remained for roughly 180 years.[3] They were subsequently transferred to the Cleveland Museum of Art, where conservator Dean Yoder dedicated five years to cleaning and in-painting the damaged works.[4] They are currently on public display in Cleveland.
  • Napoleon in Berlin, 1810, Palace of Versailles
  • Wisdom Defending Youth from the Arrows of Love, 1810, National Gallery of Canada

Notes and references
  1. Funérailles de M. Charles Meynier: par Étienne-Barthélémy Garnier
  2. Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Writers (2012-12-10). "Apollo and the Muses". Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-10-09.
  3. Ghislain de Diesbach, Un nid de souvenirs en Suisse, in "Connaissance des Arts", n° 192, February 1968, pages 62–67.
  4. Cleveland Museum of Art Staff Writers (2012-12-10). "Apollo and the Muses". Cleveland Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-10-09.

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