Maréchal Pélissier, duc de Malakoff

Maréchal Pélissier, duc de Malakoff


A carte-de-visite portrait of Maréchal Pélissier, duc de Malakoff (1794-1866).

Aimable Jean Jacques Pélissier (1794-1864) was created a marshal of France in 1855 and Duc de Malakoff in 1856. He entered the army in 1815, and served in the Crimean War and in Algeria, where he dealt so severely with the Arab population, on one occasion suffocating an entire tribe in a cave where they had taken refuge, that there was a public outcry in Europe. From March 1858 to May 1859 he was French ambassador in London. In 1860 he was appointed governor-general of Algeria, and he died there on the 22nd of May 1864.

Roger Fenton, who photographed Pélissier during the Crimean War, afterwards commented that 'his face has an expression of brutal boldness, something like that of a wild boar'.

Photographed by Disdéri of Paris.



 


Code: 124200
© Paul Frecker 2024