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 and Jacques-Louis David .

Biography [ edit ]

Meynier was the son of a tailor. Already at a young age he was trained by Pierre-Philippe Choffard . As a student of Francois-Andre Vincent , Meynier won the second prize in the 1789 prix de Rome competition; Girodet won. He became a member of the Academie de France a 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 Academie des Beaux-Arts . In 1819 Meynier was appointed teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts . ^[1] Like his wife he died of cholera .

Works [ edit ]

• "Milo of Croton", 1795 Oil on Canvas Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Montreal, Quebec
• Five canvases of the Muses, commissioned by Francois Boyer-Fonfrede, ^[2] but after his bankruptcy they were purchased by General Nicolas Antoine Xavier Castella de Berlens and transferred to his chateau 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.
  • Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy , 1798, Cleveland Museum of Art , Cleveland, Ohio
  • Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry , 1798, Cleveland Museum of Art , Cleveland, Ohio
  • Clio, Muse of History , 1800, Cleveland Museum of Art , Cleveland, Ohio
  • Erato, Muse of Lyrical Poetry , 1800, Cleveland Museum of Art , Cleveland, Ohio
  • Polyhymnia, Muse of Eloquence , 1800, Cleveland Museum of Art , Cleveland, Ohio
• Napoleon in Berlin , 1810, Palace of Versailles
• Wisdom Defending Youth from the Arrows of Love , 1810, National Gallery of Canada

Gallery [ edit ]

• 
  Napoleon as First Consul , 1804
• 
  The soldiers of the 76th Ligne receive their banners from Marshal Ney , 1808.
• 
  Return of Napoleon to the Isle of Lobau after the Battle of Essling , 1812.
• 
  Alexander the Great Giving Campaspe to Apelles , 1822
• 
  Calliope , Muse of Epic Poetry, 1798
• 
  France in the guise of Minerva , 1819
• 
  Helen and Paris

Notes and references [ edit ]

External links [ edit ]

• Exhibition of Meynier's work on La Tribune de l'art Archived 2008-12-10 at the Wayback Machine

Media related to Charles Meynier at Wikimedia Commons