Alphonse de Neuville was born to wealthy parents at Saint-Omer, Pas de Calais. He studied under Eugene Delacroix and was one of the leading academic military painters in France in the second half of the 19th century.

At the onset of his career he worked as an illustrator for books such as Guizot’s ‘Histoire de France’ and Hetzel’s editions of Jules Verne’s ‘Twenty thousand leagues under the sea’.

De Neuville at the age of twenty entered the Naval School at Lorient. It was there where his artistic instincts were ignited, but was not until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 that de Neuville came fully into his own. During the siege of Paris, the artist was attached to a unit defending the outskirts of the city at Le Bourget where he witnessed the military action and the atrocities of war at first hand.

For the rest of his life de Neuville made a name for himself in war scenes where the emphasis was not on the battle but on the human drama.

His reputation was so great, that for a number of years after the Franco-Prussian War, his paintings were not allowed in the annual exhibition in the Palais d’Industrie, as the French government feared that they would ignite the public opinion and threaten the delicate relations with Germany.

His works are found in many public and private collections in France and abroad, notably: The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, The Metropolitan Museum, New York and so on.