GOSSE, Nicolas-Louis-François - b. 1787 Paris, d. 1878 Soncourt-sur-Marne

French painter and draftsman. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under François-André Vincent, who taught him the art of accurate drawing, brilliant touch and contrasting colours. He became a skilled representative of the academic style prevailing in his earlier period. His portraits are of great distinction in the firmness of graphics. The “troubadour” genre subjects which he sent to the Salon from 1808 to 1870 show an ingenious design of theatrical composition, they represent scenes from the Napoleonic era, as well as from the reigns of Charles X and Louis-Philippe.

He obtained a third class medal in 1819 and a second class in 1824. In 1828 he was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour and promoted to Officer in 1870.

His principal works include: Napoleon I. and Queen Louise at Tilsit; Meeting of Napoleon and Alexander of Russia at Erfurt; and Louis Philippe Declining the Crown of Belgium Offered to His Son, all in the Historical Museum at Versailles; and Entry of the Duke of Angoulème into Madrid, a wall painting in the Hôtel de Ville, Paris.

Louis-Philippe Being Decorated with the Order of the Garter

During his journey in England in October 1844, Louis-Philippe was decorated with the important Order of the Garter by Queen Victoria at the Windsor Castle. Nicolas Gosse, especially appreciated for his theatrical composition, was commissioned a painting to commemorate the event. According to the exhibition catalogue Louis-Philippe, l’Homme et le Roi, the work was inspired by Louis Hughe’s watercolour, dated 1844.