Edouard Castres (21 June1838 – 28 June1902) studied fine arts with Barthélemy Menn in Geneva before enrolling in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He took part in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 as a Red Cross volunteer accomanying General Bourbaki's Eastern Army throughout the last phase of the war. With collaborators he executed, in 1881, the large-scale panorama showing the withdrawal of Bourbaki's army into Switzerland and its internment. This Panorama is magnificently displayed in a rotunda in Lucerne.
