Adolphe Yvon (French, 1817-1893) 

Bataille de l’alma

Double study of man lying on ground

8 ½ by 10 ½ inches

Graphite on paper

Signed AD Yvon lower left

From the estate of the esteemed New York art dealer Eric Carlson, who specialized in French academic and realist drawings.

From AskArt, "dolphe Yvon (1817-1893) studied under Paul Delaroche, rose to fame during the Second Empire, and then finished his career as a teacher.  Later, Napoleon III admired his battle scenes: naturally he glorified the carnage of Napoleon I's campaigns. 

Yvon became an officer of the Légion d'Honneur in 1867, and painted Napoleon III's portrait the following year (unlocated). Yvon was known as the leading teacher of drawing at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1863-83).  A few Americans received instruction from him, including Christian Schussele, Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, William Sartain, and J. Alden Weir.  The latter took Yvon's afternoon life-drawing class starting in the fall of 1874. 

Yvon provided the subject for compositional sketches for his students, for example, The Assassination of Julius Caesar, for which he specified how it should be done: "Caesar covers his head with his toga . . . he was shoved to the base of Pompey's statue, which became bathed in his blood." (Archives of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Archives Nationales, AJ52 63).  Alexander Stewart, the American collector, commissioned Yvon to paint The Reconciliation of the North and the South (lost) in 1870.  His Portrait of President Carnot (1888) appeared at the World's Columbian Exposition."