Painter and illustrator Francois Hippolyte Lalaisse was born on January 27, 1810, in Nancy, France. He studied under painter and printmaker Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet and began exhibiting at the Paris Salon in 1935. He was offered a position as a teacher at the Ecole Polytechnique (France) in 1839 and he remained there until 1877. 

Lalaisse was known primarily for his suites of lithographs depicting military uniforms and regional costumes of Brittany, published by Charpentier. Additionally, his interest in the horsemanship of Arabic cultures and of the military led to several illustrative commissions, including for the published works "Chevaux de Race de tous Pays," "La Connaissance Generale du Cheval," (1861), and "Atlas Statistique de la Production des Chaveaux en France," (1850). He was awarded the Knight of the Legion of Honor. Lalaisse died in Paris on March 13, 1884.

His work is held in the Musee du Faouet, Musee de Bagneres-de-Bigorre, Chaumont, Musee de Lons-le-Saulnier, the Musee des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Mediterranee, Marsailles, the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania, and the Art Institute of Chicago.