Harvey Demonstrating the Circulation of the Blood to Charles I

Benjamin-Eugène Fichel was a French artist of small historical and genre paintings who worked in the style of Ernest Meissonier. Like the elder master, Fichel specialized in eighteenth-century themes, and his work was esteemed for its highly refined technique and exactitude of historical details. Fichel attended the École des Beaux-Arts and showed regularly at the Salon, the annual art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, where his paintings won medals in 1857 and 1869. He was named a chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1870.