Which French artist created the Gettysburg Cyclorama painting?

The French artist who created the Gettysburg Cyclorama was Paul Philippoteaux.

Paul Dominique Philippoteaux designed the immense panoramic painting known as The Battle of Gettysburg, which depicts Pickett’s Charge on July 3, 1863. The work was commissioned by Chicago investors, and Philippoteaux researched the battlefield carefully before painting it. He studied photographs, interviewed veterans, and examined the terrain from a specially constructed platform.

The completed cyclorama was created in the early 1880s and first exhibited in Chicago in 1883. Multiple versions were produced for public display, including the Boston version now preserved at Gettysburg. The painting is a 360-degree panorama designed to immerse viewers in the scene, with foreground objects and sculptural elements adding to the illusion.

A common misconception is that the painting records the entire three-day battle. It focuses instead on Pickett’s Charge, the climactic Confederate assault against the Union line on Cemetery Ridge. Philippoteaux’s work also contains artistic liberties, so it is a vivid historical interpretation rather than a perfectly literal battlefield photograph.