Born in Orléans in France, Antigna was a pupil of Noblin and later on of Paul Delaroche.

Alexandre Antigna was one of the artists in whom you could find the 1848 revolutionary spirit.

Great painter of realism, though less known than Courbet, he still is much appreciated by the French people and French state that bought him numerous paintings.

Two of his greatest paintings "L'Éclair" (at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris) and "L'Incendie" (The Fire, at the Beaux-Arts Museum in Orleans) were bought by the French Republic.

He got many awards:

1847: 3rd class medal

1848: 2nd medal

1950: 1st medal

From 1855 through 1868 he regularly got recompenses.

In 1858 he got a medal in Rouen

1860 he got a gold medal in Troyes

Alexandre Antigna got also th title of "Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur" by Napoleon III.