I am always surprised by the fact that some of the most amazing artist have never become really known in the world.
Adolphe Yvon (1817–1893) was a French painter known for his paintings of the Napoleonic Wars.
Yvon was born in Eschweiler and when old enough he followed his father into the Ministry of Water and Forests, but he had a much stronger desire to be an artist. After three years at the Ministry he had saved enough to go to Paris where he became a pupil at Delaroche’s atelier in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1841 he showed his first painting at the Salon. His early works included portraits and biblical subjects
Spurred by the Orientalist painters into looking for new subject matter, he went to Russia during the Crimean campaign and visited Constantinople in 1856, where he was inspired to paint a number of Orientalist scenes. He exhibited his paintings of Istanbul during Sultan Abdülmecid‘s reign in the 1873 Paris Salon.
Shortly after the end of the Crimean War, Yvon was commissioned by the French government to paint a large picture of the capture of the Malakoff at Sevastopol (a Black Sea port). La Prise (pictured above) was a massive piece measuring 6 meters by 9 meters and represented the moment when the fortification was captured around midday.
Yvon was one of the most popular painters of his time, winning several medals including the Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1855. He was known as the leading teacher of drawing at the École des Beaux-Arts (1863–83)
Depths of Glory, A Biographical Novel of Camille Pissarro by Irving Stone
Information could be from wiki, wikiart, wikigallery, wiki commons, books or other websites. Read a more bio at Artnet
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