About: Alphonse Chigot

Alphonse Charles Chigot (1824 – 1917) was a French historical painter and soldier, particularly associated with the city of Valenciennes where he had a studio for over sixty years. A former soldier in the French army he saw action in the first Franco-Moroccan War of 1844 and served until 1849. In 1853 he entered the Academies de Valenciennes to study art for three years. Chigot favoured military themed subjects and his works include large canvases such as le Duel and Le Salut a la Vierge, numerous portraits of soldiers and drawings and sketches of the Valenciennoise. He favoured epic subjects which he approached in an academic style, influenced by Neoclassicism and Romanticism. As a long-standing teacher of painting his pupils included his son Eugène Chigot, Charles Paris and Henri Le Sida