Franz Roubaud was born in Odessa, Russia in 1856. At the age of 21 he moved to Munich to study under Carl von Piloty and Otto Seitz. In 1881, after having traveled to Paris and the South of France, the home of his ancestors, Roubaud began his studies at a private school run by the famous Polish battle painter Josef von Brandt.

Only two years later Roubaud received a commission from the Russian government to travel through the Caucasus, and in 1885 he executed a series of history paintings for the Hall of Fame in Tbilisi.

From 1908 to 1911 he taught as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.

Roubaud created three panoramas, the most famous being the extraordinary 115 metre-long The Battle o...