Biography

Early Life & Training · 1800–1821

Born on January 17, 1800 at 11, rue Saint-Denis in Paris, Joseph-Louis-Hippolyte Bellangé came from a modest family — his father Pierre-Antoine was a carpenter, his mother Marie-Anne Agnès Quenet a milliner.

After brief studies at the Lycée impérial Bonaparte, he was placed in a commercial firm before entering in 1816 the studio of painter Antoine-Jean Gros, one of the official painters of the First Empire. There he worked alongside Richard Parkes Bonington, Eugène Lami, Camille Roqueplan and Paul Delaroche.

It was in this studio that he formed a lasting friendship with Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, eight years his senior, who introduced him to lithography. Both shared a deep enthusiasm for the work of Théodore Géricault.

Early Works & Lithography · 1822–1833

He exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1822 with The Battle of the Moskova and three small campaign scenes. Noticed at the Salon of 1824, he received a second-class medal.

From 1823, he published lithographic collections on the French army, printed by Villain and Godefroy Engelmann, published by the Gihaut brothers. These popular lithographies — soldier types, genre scenes, fantasies — brought him both fame and a steady income.

Recognition · 1834

Official recognition came at the Salon of 1834 with Napoleon on his Return from the Island of Elba, which earned him the Knight's Cross of the Légion d'honneur. The work was an enormous success — engraved and lithographed by Bellangé himself.

Alongside Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet and Auguste Raffet, he became "one of the three artists who best understood the depiction of the soldiers of the Empire" according to the critic Thoré.

Curator in Rouen · 1837–1853

In 1837, he was appointed curator of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen, a position he held until 1853. He settled with his family in the Norman city while continuing to exhibit at the Salon.

The Second Empire & Final Years · 1853–1866

Returning to Paris in 1853, he found new inspiration in the wars of the Second Empire: Battle of the Alma (1855), Taking of Malakhov (1858), Street Fighting in Magenta (1861).

Following the success of The Two Friends (1861), he was promoted to Officer of the Légion d'honneur.

Hippolyte Bellangé died in Paris on April 10, 1866. His considerable body of work includes over 250 paintings, nearly 1,200 drawings and watercolours, and some 800 lithographs.

Sources

• Jules Adeline — Hippolyte Bellangé et son œuvre, Paris, 1880
• Solène Sazio — Doctoral thesis
• Wikipedia — Hippolyte Bellangé