Meissonier, his life and his art . n dAngely, Rose, c tiitli qiianli. I myselfam behind, to the left. I painted this sketch for the Siege of Paris in less than twomonths. At the last moment, in th( f(;vcrish e.\cit(^ment, gettingready for my exhibition, I was forced to forgo a certain amountof harmony and coherence. I did not make a single study forany of the figures, save this sketch on tracing-paper of the dyingResfnault. -& I also made a mental sketch of the Siege of Paris ondifferent lines. This was the idea : France, wounded, her armsshattered, looks on in despair while her provinces are
Meissonier, his life and his art . n dAngely, Rose, c tiitli qiianli. I myselfam behind, to the left. I painted this sketch for the Siege of Paris in less than twomonths. At the last moment, in th( f(;vcrish e.\cit(^ment, gettingready for my exhibition, I was forced to forgo a certain amountof harmony and coherence. I did not make a single study forany of the figures, save this sketch on tracing-paper of the dyingResfnault. -& I also made a mental sketch of the Siege of Paris ondifferent lines. This was the idea : France, wounded, her armsshattered, looks on in despair while her provinces are torn from her bySaxon and Bavarian soldiers. The provinces cling desperately toFrance, who cannot save Paris. The city standing, her splendid robe at her feet, her head wrappeclin a lions skin. Round her suffering, famine, and death. Childrendying on the withered breasts of their mothers. Among the dead,Regnault, &c. I hope I shall be free this year to set to work on the Siege ofParis. It represents Honour, Resistance! o ^. HIS WORKS 259 My idea is to make a sort of heroic symphony of France. Thecity of Paris wears a robe of gold brocade, veiled with crape ; herhand rests on a cippus. Her mural crown is on a stela ; above is thecrest of the city, a ship, against which a naval officer lies dying ;scattered here and there, the illustrious dead, Franchetti, GeneralRenault, Dampierre, Neverlee ; then an ambulance, a doctor. Youknow what numbers of little children perished during the siege. Toindicate this, here is a national guardsman returning from his weeksservice at the out-posts ; his distracted wife holds out the corpse of hischild. Just here is Regnault, the last victim. I was told off to go andclaim his corpse from the Prussians. The night before, I had beentalking to him. The Prussians were very surly, they would not allow us to entertheir lines. They took our litters from us and brought back our had had a grave dug just in front of us. We took the number ofeach sol
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidmeissonierhislif00meis
