Eugène-Louis Lami

French, 1800–1890

Lami was born in Paris and studied at the École de Beaux-Arts with Lucien-Alphonse Gros (1775–1835) and Horace Vernet (1789–1863). Lami debuted at the Salon in 1824, specializing in battle and historical scenes, and was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1839. He won a second class medal at the Salon in 1875.

Lami is perhaps best known as a lithographer, a practice he began in 1817. In various collaborations with Vernet others, he created several albums of costume studies, such as Uniformes français, de 1814 à 1824, and cityscapes, including Voyages à Londres (1828–1829). Lami’s work attracted the attention of King Louis-Philippe, who commissioned five large battle scenes for Versailles Palace. The paintings were never installed.

The Battle of New Orleans. Louis Eugene Lami, 1839. Oil, 129 x 196 inches. Gift of the State of Louisiana, Louisiana State Museum 1991.080

The Battle of New Orleans
Eugène-Louis Lami, 1839
Oil, 129 x 196 inches
Gift of the State of Louisiana, Louisiana State Museum 1991.080

Lami depicts the moment of the American victory over the English at the Battle of New Orleans, fought just outside the city in St. Bernard Parish on January 8, 1815. To the right American flags wave as Andrew Jackson and his advisors look upon the celebrating troops. Three Free Men of Color and a figure supposedly representing the pirate Jean Laffite, seen in the foreground, suggest the diversity of Jackson’s troops. To the left, General Pakenham lies fatally wounded on horseback, surrounded by grieving and fallen, and retreating British redcoats. Many aspects of the artist’s depiction of the Chalmette battlefield are imaginary.

Lami offered to sell this painting, together with a scene of the Battle of Yorktown, to William Corcoran for the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Despite Corcoran’s initial refusals, Z. B. Stearn, a Richmond, Virginia, art dealer, negotiated the purchase in 1878 for fifteen hundred dollars. Corcoran immediately presented The Battle of New Orleans to the state of Louisiana and The Battle of Yorktown to the state of Virginia.

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