Olivier Pichat

Olivier Pichat liked painting people in the quiet hours between duties, not the flashy portraits that paid the bills. He once hid a disloyal officer in a rear-admiral’s uniform, you can still see the stiff collar and sideways glance in Charles-René Magon, rear admiral (1847). The portrait feels almost too real, like the sitter stepped out for a minute and might walk back in. Swipe to see how Pichat made a stiff uniform feel like a human lived inside it.