Editing Ernest Meissonier (section)

{{Short description|French painter (1815–1891)}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
| image         = Ernest Meissonier by RJ Bingham ca 1860-75b.jpg
| image_size    = 220px
| alt           = 
| caption       = Ernest Meissonier
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1815|2|21|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Lyon]], France
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1891|1|31|1815|2|21|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Paris]], France
| nationality   = French
| spouse        = Emma Steinhel
| field         = Painting, Sculpture
| training      = 
| movement      = [[Academic art]]
| works         = 
| patrons       = 
| awards        = 
| elected       = 
| website       = 
}}

'''Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃ lwi ɛʁnɛst mɛsɔnje|lang}}; 21 February 1815{{snd}}31 January 1891) was a French [[Academic art|academic]] painter and [[sculpture|sculptor]]. He became famous for his depictions of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] and his [[military]] [[siege]]s and [[:wikt:manoeuvre|manoeuvre]]s in paintings acclaimed both for the artist's mastery of fine detail and his assiduous craftsmanship. The English art critic [[John Ruskin]]  examined his work at length under a magnifying glass, "marvelling at Meissonier's manual dexterity and eye for fascinating minutiae."{{sfn|King|2006|p=7}} Meissonier enjoyed great success in his lifetime, becoming, with [[Gérôme]] and [[Cabanel]], one of "the three most successful artists of the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]."<ref>Wright, Barbara. ''Eugéne Fromentin: A Life in Art and Letters'', Bern: Peter Lang, 2000, p. 432.</ref> 

Meissonier's work commanded enormous prices and in 1846 he purchased a great mansion in [[Poissy]], sometimes known as the Grande Maison. The Grande Maison included two large studios, the ''atelier d'hiver'', or ''winter workshop'', situated on the top floor of the house, and at ground level, a glass-roofed annexe, the ''atelier d'été'' or ''summer workshop''. Meissonier himself said that his house and temperament belonged to another age, and some, like the critic Paul Mantz for example, criticised the artist's seemingly limited repertoire. Like [[Alexandre Dumas]], he excelled at depicting scenes of chivalry and masculine adventure against a backdrop of pre-[[French Revolution|Revolutionary]] and pre-industrial France, specialising in scenes from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century life.