Edouard Castres
Edouard Castres (also spelled Édouard) is the author of the circular panorama depicting the surrender and crossing of the Swiss border by General Bourbaki’s army.
Born on 21 June 1838 in Geneva, in the Saint-Gervais district, he studied under Barthélemy Menn in his native city before continuing his studies in Paris, notably at the École des Beaux-Arts.
A volunteer with the French Red Cross attached to the Army of the East during the war of 1870–1871, he witnessed the army’s retreat into Switzerland in February 1871; the panorama recounts this crossing, which took place during the winter of 1871.
The panorama was commissioned by Benjamin Henneberg: Castres began studies for the subject as early as 1876 and executed the canvas in Geneva over a period of four years from 1881, assisted by a team of painters which, according to the source, included Ferdinand Hodler.
Measuring 112 metres by 10, the Panorama Bourbaki is displayed in Lucerne in a museum specially devoted to it.
Among his pupils was Rodolphe Piguet; Castres appears in lists of Swiss painters and was the subject of an exhibition catalogue by Marc-Antonio Barblan in 1975; a local notice describes him as a «great, little-known Genevan painter» and often identifies him as a painter associated with the canton of Geneva.
