Isidore Pils (French, 1813/15–1875)

b. 1813 — d. 1875

In 1832, after an initial training with Guillaume Lethière (1760-1832), Pils entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied under François-Édouard Picot (1786-1868), with whom he became close friends. As winner of the Prix de Rome in 1838, with Saint Peter Healing a Lame Man at the Gate of the Temple, Pils went to the Académie de France in Rome, then led by Ingres (q.v.), and stayed in Italy until 1844. Often in poor health, Pils nevertheless managed to travel around and study the artifacts from antiquity. But his works were generally harshly criticized until his return to France, where his first success came five years later with the patriotic Rouget de l'Isle Singing the Marseillaise at the Residence of the Mayor of Strasbourg (1849, Historical Museum, Strasbourg). Pils would often choose his subjects in order to treat the life of the poor and ordinary people, such as his Death of a Sister of Charity (Salon 1850-51, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). A favorite of the imperial regime, Pils followed the French army to Crimea in 1854-55 and recorded the military campaign of Napoleon III. His Battle of Alma, 20 December 1854 (1861, Musée du Château de Versailles) was highly praised, and in 1863 he left for Algeria to carry out a commission for the emperor. One year later Pils became professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, and he would receive several honors and awards. The artist was given commissions for decorations in the churches of Saint-Eustache (1854) and Sainte-Clotilde (1858) in Paris, and he painted murals at the Opéra (1865-75). Pils also made several watercolors during the siege of Paris by the Prussians in 1871. Weakened by health problems, he last exhibited at the Salon of 1875, the year of his death.