Edouard Detaille (1848-1912) Carnival Scene, Signed Watercolour

Edouard Detaille (1848-1912) Carnival Scene, watercolour, pen and brown ink on paper. A very fine example of Detaille's talent for humorous scenes, combined with his skill in portraiture, evident in each character. Indeed, one must examine the work closely to spot all the characters that Detaille has integrated into his composition. Jean-Baptiste Édouard Detaille was a renowned academic painter and French military artist known for his precision and attention to realistic detail. Detaille grew up in a prosperous military family in Picardy. At the Salon of 1868, he exhibited his first military painting, The Drummers at Rest. Detaille eventually became the official painter of battles. The artist amassed an impressive collection of uniforms and military objects, which he bequeathed to the Musée de l'Armée in Paris after his death.