Paul-Émile Boutigny

Paul-Émile Boutigny (French pronunciation: [pɔl emil butiɲi]; 10 March 1853 in Paris – 27 June 1929 in Paris) was a French academist painter who specialized in military subjects.

Paul-Émile Boutigny
(mid 1890s). Photograph by
Wilhelm Benque

Henri de La Rochejaquelein at the Second Battle of Cholet (1899)

Life and work

His father was a tailor and his mother worked as a seamstress. Following the Franco-Prussian War, he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts under Alexandre Cabanel^[1] and developed a unique style of battle painting, drawn from personal experience. He was a regular participant in the Salon after 1880.

He was decorated with the Légion d'honneur in 1898.^[2] That same year, he began producing the satirical, artistic and literary journal Cocorico, which promoted Art Nouveau.

He illustrated several works:

• Chants du Soldat, a popular collection of patriotic poems by Paul Déroulède.^[1] Calmann Lévy, Paris 1881
• Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant, Calmann Lévy, Paris 1899
• Les Héros de France (Hoche, Marceau and Desaix) by Théodore Cahu [fr], SDL, Paris 1900
• L'attaque du Moulin by Émile Zola, from the anthology Les Soirées de Médan, Collection des Dix, Paris 1901

Some of his most familiar paintings include:

• An Episode from the Quiberon Affair (1881). Musée des Beaux-Arts et Arts Décoratifs de Mirande
• The Seventh Line to Attack Malakoff and the Death of Captain Pagès (1887). Hall of Honor of the Seventh Infantry Regiment.
• Napoléon – The Battle of Aspern-Essling – Death of Jean Lannes, Marshall of the Empire (1894)
• Napoléon Bonaparte – The Revolt at Pavia (1895)