Meissonier, his life and his art . best, I must think. My art before everything ! I have livedfor it all my life! This has been my ideal andmy delight. A painter, a true painter, musthave no mistress but painting ! He ought notto marry, or, if he does, his wife should beready for every sort of self-sacrifice. Letwell alone is a dogma of the sluggard, heused to say. He re-touched, corrected, re-cast his work again and again. iSoj was inhis studio fourteen years. After a day of work, he would think he had at lastcarried out some idea successfully ; the nextmorninof he would take out
Meissonier, his life and his art . best, I must think. My art before everything ! I have livedfor it all my life! This has been my ideal andmy delight. A painter, a true painter, musthave no mistress but painting ! He ought notto marry, or, if he does, his wife should beready for every sort of self-sacrifice. Letwell alone is a dogma of the sluggard, heused to say. He re-touched, corrected, re-cast his work again and again. iSoj was inhis studio fourteen years. After a day of work, he would think he had at lastcarried out some idea successfully ; the nextmorninof he would take out the whole , though he worked so rapidly, his pro-gress seemed slow, because he was continuallybeginning over again.^ What a number of men and horses he slewin his Dragons [Dragoons) to get a better attitude for an arm or a leg IThere are two or three pictures in Lcs Dragons, one on topof theother! Some canvases he called his Penelopes webs. He had apassion for truth. If I enjoy poetry more than prose, he said, with an. A CAVALIER. (Pen sketch. 1 An instance of such re-painting, recorded by his family, deserves mention. Hisbrother-in-law, Steinheil, went to see a picture he was just going to send to its owner. Its very good, he said, but But what? interrupted Meissonier, with the irritability he did not always control when there was no special reason for restraint. .The background is not in proportion with the figure. What, not in proportion!Vou must be crazy ! I measured it all—this and this and this ! Oh, all right, saidSteinheil; perhaps I am mistaken, and he turned to leave the studio. No, no, youmustnt go. Let us see. You may possibly be right ! By degrees he calmed down,looking at the picture, re-touching it here and there. Upon my word, I believe you areright! The next day Steinheil came back. All the background was scratched out,and Meissonier was painting it over again. 84 MEISSONIER ingenuity which is rather disconcerting at the first bhish, though onrefl
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