Battle of Fontenoy by E Detaille   Battle of Fontenoy during the war of Austrian Succession. French victory under Marshal Maurice De Saxe over the allies (British, Dutch and German under the Duke of Cumberland), 11th May 1745. Fontenoy, 5 miles south east of Tournai (Tolnay), the battle which started with a Dutch assault and British and Hanovarian infantry advance against the French centre during the battle a sudden attack by an Irish Brigade under French command, attacked the allied forces. The allied square was broken but the British, Hanovarian and Dutch forces retreated in good order.

Artist Information:   Jean Baptiste Edouard Detaille    Born in Paris on 5th October, 1847, the young Detaille was surrounded by military figures from his grandfather who had worked as a sutler responsible for organising Napoleon's transports, to a great aunt who had married Admiral Villeneuve. Nonetheless, his only ambition was to be an artist and he let it be known that he wished to study with Cabanel but through various circumstances ended up in the great Meissonier's studio. It was in 1867 that the young artist first exhibited a picture, showing a view of Meissonier's studio but in the following year he showed his first military piece. While it was based solely on imagination, The Drummer's Halt represented a scene from the French Revolution. This was to be the beginning of a glorious career painting many military scenes from French history. The Franco-Prussian War had a profound effect on the artist particularly as it forced him to see war in person. On the outbreak of war he enlisted in the 8th Mobile Bataillon and by November 1870 was attached to General Ducrot's staff seeing action in the fighting around Paris. On the Marne he saw regiments under fire, groups of skirmishes dispatched to the front and senseless retreats. These experiences of war enabled him to produce many striking portrayals of the actions. Indeed, in 1872, he was forced to withdraw two paintings of the war from an exhibition so as not to offend Germany. Over the next few years, Detaille exhibited some of his finest paintings of the conflict such as Salut aux Blesses of 1877, La Defense de Champigny of 1879 and Le Soir de Rezonville. With de Neuville he produced two large panoramas of the battles at Champigny and Rezonville. Now a celebrity, he travelled extensively through Europe between 1879 and 1884, taking time only to visit Tunisia with a French expeditionary force where he was witness to some fighting. In Britain, he painted a review of British troops by the Prince of Wales, and a scene showing Scots Guards in Hyde Park. It was at this time that Detaille was developing a deep interest in the French army and he produced all the drawings and plates for Jules Richard's Types et Uniformes de l'Armee Francaise, 390 images in all. With all his work, Detaille painted a slow and methodical way so as to produce his subjects naturally and realistically, but most important of all, truthfully. By the 1890's Detaille was turning more and more to the campaign of Napoleon and he produced many striking battle scenes including dashing cavalry charges. He used many original items of uniform and weapons to give authenticity to his pictures, and many of these artifacts were used in the creation of the Musee de l'Armee in Paris which Detaille helped to found. He died in Paris on 23rd December, 1912.    Peter Harrington

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