Retired from the army his father was variously an inn keeper and an employee of the Administration des droits reunis (the agency charged with the collection of indirect taxes in France) and from 1852 the manager of a tobacco shop at Aulnoy-lez-Valenciennes.

[3] Chigot served in Algeria with French forces under Governor-general Maréchal Bugeaud in 1844 and saw action in the Battle of Isly on 14 August 1844.

He was also present at the recapture of the Marabout of Sidi Brahim, from Abdelkader El Djezairi's Algerian forces on 23 December 1847.

Clearly a strong willed person he does not seem to have been much interested in classical art preferring en- plein air painting and military subjects in the academic style of Horace Vernet and Louis-Théodore Devilly.

The union produced six children including Eugène Chigot, the painter and Edouard, (1859–1919) who maintained the family expectations for boys and became a soldier.

Particularly successful were his pochades (small pocket size paintings) of local characters that could be produced quickly and sold for a relatively cheap price.

They were commercially successful but little commented upon by art critics and historians and thus they are not well documented[8] The defeat of the French at Sedan in 1871 by the Prussians had a deep psychological effect on France.

Displayed at the Salon in 1888 the critic Eugene Montrosier discussed the content of the painting ... As soon as you touch the military genre, one almost falls into sentimentality.

This is what Mr. Chigot prevents, recalling a painful memory of the Eastern Army, which after glorious exploits took refuge in Switzerland.

…[9] In Soldat français blessé dans la neige, 1871 Chigot depicts a desperate wounded French soldier, unable to stand in the snow.

His unwelcome guests were left to contemplate a final canvas that he was composing where the Prussians were fleeing at pace from the marauding French infantrymen.