Meissonier, Jean-Louis-Ernest (b Lyon, 21 Feb 1815; d Paris, 31 Jan 1891)

French painter, sculptor and illustrator. Although he was briefly a student of Jules Potier (1796–1865) and Léon Cogniet, Meissonier was mainly self-taught and gained experience by designing wood-engravings for book illustrations. These included Léon Curmer’s celebrated edition of J.-H. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Paul et Virginie (Paris, 1838), the series Les Français peints par eux-mêmes (Paris, 1840–42) and Louis de Chevigné’s Les Contes rémois (Paris, 1858). Such images, typically measuring 60*90 mm and composed of still-life motifs (books or drapery cascading from a chest, intricately arranged and exhaustively detailed), helped form the style for which Meissonier became famous as a painter.