Charles Meynier was a recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1789 and became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1815. A history painter, he created the grand decoration for ceilings of the Louvre (1819 and 1822), and produced numerous pictures glorifying the Napoleonic legend, which for the most part remain in the château de Versailles. Through the assistance of his brother Meynier Saint-Phal, a famous actor of the Comédie Française who paid for his studies, the artist entered the atelier of the painter François André Vincent (1746-1816), a principal rival of the master Jacques-Louis David. The studio in which Meynier received his training was known by the students of David as the atelier of the"perruques," (the wigs) the name given to royalists or conservatives during that period.
