Charles-Édouard Armand-Dumaresq

Biography of Charles-Édouard Armand-Dumaresq

Charles-Édouard Armand-Dumaresq, born January 1, 1826 in Paris and died in the 17th arrondissement on March 6, 1895, is a French painter and illustrator. His father, Gabriel Armand, is also a painter, and Charles-Édouard is a student of Thomas Couture. He distinguished himself as a watercolorist, draftsman and painter, first tackling religious subjects before devoting himself mainly to military themes.
In 1858, he added his mother's name, Dumaresq, to ​​his surname by decree. A member of the international jury of the 1867 Universal Exhibition in Paris, he exhibited his large-format painting *Cambronne at Waterloo* there, which earned him the cross of the Legion of Honor from Napoleon III and was purchased by the Pasha of Egypt.


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In 1870, he was sent on a study mission to the United States by the French Ministry of Public Instruction to examine the methods of teaching drawing and their application to the arts and industry. During his stay, he came into contact with the artistic circles of the northeastern United States, the military academy at West Point and the naval academy at Annapolis. He concluded that "the superiority of the French school is recognized by all", emphasizing the importance of Paris in the consecration of artists and methods.
Back in France, he participated in the design of the Binant suite in Paris (1871) and collaborated with Van Engelen in Lille to produce a panorama of the Battle of Bapaume, preserved today in the great hall of the Bapaume town hall. Armand-Dumaresq died in Paris in 1895.
His works are kept at the museum of the Palace of Versailles, at the Cabinet des estampes of the National Library and at the National Museum of Franco-American Cooperation in Blérancourt in the Oise. His painting *Signature of the Independence of the United States* is exhibited in the Cabinet Room at the White House.