Meissonier, his life and his art . It isthe want of such historical knowledge that led Zamacois, for instance,in his picture, The Courtfester, to make a Knightof the Holy Ghost bowlow before a dwarf —which is as monstrously-impossible as if a GrandCross of the Legion ofIlonour were paintedbowing humbly to a beg-gar, nowadays. I would have drawingmade the basis of educa-tion in all schools. It isthe universal lanouao-e,the only one which canexpress all things. Anoutline, even an ill-shapedone, conveys a more ex-act idea of a thing thanthe most harmonioussentence in the is absolute
Meissonier, his life and his art . It isthe want of such historical knowledge that led Zamacois, for instance,in his picture, The Courtfester, to make a Knightof the Holy Ghost bowlow before a dwarf —which is as monstrously-impossible as if a GrandCross of the Legion ofIlonour were paintedbowing humbly to a beg-gar, nowadays. I would have drawingmade the basis of educa-tion in all schools. It isthe universal lanouao-e,the only one which canexpress all things. Anoutline, even an ill-shapedone, conveys a more ex-act idea of a thing thanthe most harmonioussentence in the is absolute truth,and the language of truth,the most exquisite of all, should be taught everywhere. The historian, in these latter days, has left the domain of dry factsand tiresome dates, and calls up the features of past centuries by meansof varied detail. Painting follows the same road. The painter whoreads a page of history doubles his powers. When a historical fact isrelated to me, a student of the architecture, the dress, the habits,. THE SMOKER. (M. Chauchards collection.) iSS MEISSONIER of each period, I see it all, in flesh and blood. The whole scene isreconstituted just as it actually was. Everything really and trulyhappens under my very eyes ; I plunge into it at once, I see the peoplewith their weapons, in their costumes, with the very faces they usedto wear ; it is a vivid, involuntary incarnation, which gives me asensation quite different to any you experience. Their houses, theirfurniture, their ways, are all familiar to me : I enter into their feelings,
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidmeissonierhislif00meis
