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FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Langlois?s panoramic painting of the French siege of Algiers was among the earliest historical panoramic paintings. In 1830 King Charles X, hoping to distract his disgruntled French subjects, ordered an invasion of the notorious pirate haven of Algiers. The king was deposed by the July Revolution at almost the same times as Algiers fell, but Algeria remained under French control until 1962, and Langlois's panorama was a major influence on France's conception of its new colonial possession.Langlois participated in the Siege of Algiers in 1830, returned for further research in 1832, and began exhibiting his panoramic painting in 1833. Like most huge historical panoramas, the Panorama d?Alger has been lost. What we know of it derives from surviving sketches and from this pamphlet published for the benefit of visitors to the spectacle. Jal gives a one-page summary of the history of Algiers, then describes the panorama, which included scenes inside the Dey's palace and treasury and a view over the city and surrounding countryside from one of the terraces of the Kasbah, with the French fleet in the bay. The ships are named and specific buildings and landmarks within Algiers are pointed out. To make the work more vivid, several quotes from Algerian rulers are included.After training at the École Polytechnique, Jean-Charles Langlois (1789-1870) became an officer in Napoleon?s army. Severely wounded at Waterloo, he retired with the rank of colonel. During the Restoration he studied art with Girodet-Trioson, producing portraits and history paintings and illustrating a military and picturesque history of Spain. But it was panoramas of battle that became his passion, because he felt that they offered the most intense experiences life could offer. Langlois?s novelty was that he not only represented the scenes involved, but made viewers feel as if they were living through the action. The first of these panoramas was on the naval battle of Navarino, an 1827 French victory over the Turks. The Panorama d?Alger was the second.Many of Langlois?s works were destroyed during the Siege of Paris in 1870-1871. The paintings that survived were transferred in 1888 to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen, where many of them were destroyed during the Battle for Caen in 1944.The pamphlet is signed in print "A. Jal" on p. 15. Augustin Jal (Lyon, 1795-Vernon [Eure], 1873), writer, archivist and historian, was author of the authoritative and still invaluable Dictionnaire critique de biographie et d?histoire, 1872, which was based on research done before the massive destruction of Paris archives in 1871. After a brief stint in the military (he was discharged for propos subversifs) he turned to art criticism and journalism. As correspondent for the Constitutionnel Jal reported on the capture of Algiers in 1830, making him uniquely qualified to write this description of Langlois?s panorama. Jal eventually became the official historiographer of the Marine and conservator of its archives.
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