Michal Pétard

Born in Nantes in 1944, Michel Pétard studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts where he began a thesis on eighteenth-century Nantes gunsmiths, which led him to meet the historian of arms Christian Ariès for whom he illustrated his famous work Les armes blanches règlementaires francaises between 1966 and 1990. Jean Boudriot, another renowned author on the subject of French weapons and naval history and an amateur designer for his treatise Le vaisseau de 74 canons, hired him for a long collaboration until the publication in 2003 of Marine royale where Boudriot entrusted him with the research, analysis and illustration of uniforms of the marine troops under the ancien regime. In the meantime, Michel Pétard was asked by René Chartrand of Parc Canada to illustrate the uniforms of the French troops in New France; this fruitful association thus continued with the present and innovative work initiated and directed by Kevin Gélinas. During these many years, Michel Pétard has published extensively on French military uniforms and its material culture as an author and editor (Équipements militaires, Des sabres et des épées), then as an author in several magazines with a variety of articles devoted to weapons and uniforms.