Jean-Charles Langlois
French, 1789–1870
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Jean-Charles Langlois, known as The Colonel was a French soldier and painter.
Langlois was born in Beaumont-en-Auge. He graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1806 and fought, as an infantry officer at the battles of Wagram, Gerona and Waterloo with a bravery that had him seriously injured and appointed colonel at the young age of twenty-six.
After he retired on half-pay, Langlois devoted himself to painting. Studying with Girodet-Trioson, he specialized in landscapes, painting battles only, for he considered these to embody the most intense experiences life could offer. His paintings include the Fire of Moscow, the Battle of Eylau, the Battle of the Nile, the Battle of Montereau, the Battle of Borodino, the Battle of Wagram. He also used photography to document the Crimean War where he traveled with photographer Léon-Eugène Méhédin. He specialized in panoramic painting after having seen the Panorama of Athens by the first French panorama painter Pierre Prévost. Many of his panoramas were destroyed during the Siege of Paris (1870–1871).
In 1873, Langlois' family bequeathed 256 paintings representing battles and military panoramas to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen. These paintings were transferred in 1888 to the Pavillon des société savantes, an 18th-century building spruced up at his niece's expense to house the Langlois museum.
Half of the works exhibited there were destroyed in 1944 during the Battle for Caen. François-Émile de Lansac was his pupil.
