Louis Charles Auguste Coude

Auguste Couder painted large history and battle pictures for the French state in the first half of the nineteenth century. His work is clear and carefully staged, with crowds of figures in uniform, big skies and a strong sense of occasion.

He was born in London in 1789 and trained in Paris under Jean-Baptiste Regnault and Jacques-Louis David. He made his name at the Salon with The Death of Masaccio in 1817 and then won commissions for the historical galleries at Versailles. His Siege of Yorktown of 1836, showing the French and American generals before the British surrender in 1781, is one of these. He also painted Muhammad Ali of Egypt and a version of The Tennis Court Oath. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1839.

In his battle scenes, look at how the generals are grouped in the foreground while the siege spreads out behind. He died in Paris in 1873.