Meissonier, his life and his art . rORTRAIT OF ^!. FtKIOT.(? rOKTKAIT OF MME. FERIOT. (Purchased by the State.) two Thierrys, with both of whom, and more especially with Charles, heformed a lifedong friendship. Romanticism was at its zenith. Hedevoured Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, and Lamartine in secret, andwas intoxicated by them. The first dawn of this enthusiasm wasassociated in his mind with the image of the little church of Thiais,where his soul went out in dreams as he listened to the solemn musicof the organ, and gazed at the painted windows. I floated, he said, mid-stream in the
Meissonier, his life and his art . rORTRAIT OF ^!. FtKIOT.(? rOKTKAIT OF MME. FERIOT. (Purchased by the State.) two Thierrys, with both of whom, and more especially with Charles, heformed a lifedong friendship. Romanticism was at its zenith. Hedevoured Alfred de Vigny, Victor Hugo, and Lamartine in secret, andwas intoxicated by them. The first dawn of this enthusiasm wasassociated in his mind with the image of the little church of Thiais,where his soul went out in dreams as he listened to the solemn musicof the organ, and gazed at the painted windows. I floated, he said, mid-stream in the ideal. The great events that were passing roundhim were not indifferent to him, nevertheless. He was still a .school- Charles I. on Horseback. ( DRAWINV:^. Primed Ijjf ;r « Lesiciir. Pons EARLY YEARS boy when thu revolution of 1830 broke out. Emile Augier hasdescribed how he, a schoolboy too, at the Institution Hallays-Dabot,a branch of the L)cee Henri IV., amused himself with his chum, Got,by quietly counting the cannon shots during the days of July. Lessphlegmatic than his future friend, a Liberal by instinct, and alreadykeenly alive, as he was throughout his life, to political agitation,Meissonier longed to go and take part in the fra\. We were, hesays, in an extraordinary , state of effervescence, hear- 4^ ing the roar of the fusilladein the distance. Three orfour of us agreed to o-o tobed in our clothes, to get upas soon as the house wasquiet, to climb the low gar-den wall, and to make ourway to Paris. But a traitorplayed us false. One of themasters came up to my bed,pulled off the clothes, foundme fully dressed, adminis-tered a couple of boxes onthe ears which made metingle with shame, and with-out a word, marched me offto
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