Isidore Pils

[2] He competed for the Prix de Rome, which he won in 1838 for a history painting, St. Peter Healing a Lame Man at the Door of the Temple.

[3] Although in poor health, Pils then spent the customary three years at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici, which then had Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres as its director.

After experiences travelling with French troops through the Crimea, his themes took on military and nationalistic subjects.

Among his students were Adrien Moreau, Paul Adolphe Rajon, Julien Dupré, Luc-Olivier Merson, Ludovic Piette, Édouard Joseph Dantan and László Mednyánszky Henry-Lionel Brioux.

[4] Among his other work, Pils painted part of the ceiling of the grand staircase of the Palais Garnier, in four panels titled The Gods of Olympus, Apollo in His Chariot, Triumph of Harmony, and Apotheosis of the Opera, completed the year of his death.