Meissonier

Meissonier, JEAN LOUIS ERNEST, figure-painter, was born at Lyons, 21st February 1813. When he was still a child his father established himself as a druggist in Paris; and the son, having resolved upon art as a profession, studied under Jules Potier and Léon Cogniet. His drawings were praised by Johannot, and about 1833-34 he was employed by Curmer the publisher on designs for the Royaument Bible and other works. He first made a distinct mark in 1838, by his illustrations to Paul and Virginia and the Chaumière Indienne; many other volumes were enriched by his pencil, and his career as a book-illustrator closes with his spirited designs to the Contes Rémois of the Comte de Chevigné. Meanwhile, he had been steadily practising painting. In 1834 he began to contribute to the Salon with a water-colour and an oil-picture, the latter strongly suggestive of the work of the figure-painters of Holland, who have powerfully influenced Meissonier during his whole career. Two years later he exhibited the first of his various groups of 'Chess-players,' and here his accurate precision of draughtsmanship and quietly dramatic truth of attitude and expression first became clearly visible. It was followed by a long series of elaborate and successful genre-pictures, in which, with the most careful and finished—if sometimes rather hard and unsympathetic—execution, and with the most perfect verisimilitude of costume and local colouring, the artist has depicted the civil and military life of the 17th and 18th centuries, passing—in such works as the 'Napoleon I.,' a small single-figure picture which Mr Ruskin sold in 1882 for £6090; the 'Campagne de France, 1814' (1864); 'Solferino' (1866), now in the Luxembourg Gallery; 'Cuirassiers or 1805' (1871); and 'Friedland or 1807,' bought by M. Secrétan in 1878 for 400,000 francs—to subjects of genre or history taken from the 19th century. Among the most celebrated of his other military scenes may be named 'La Rixe' (1854), purchased by Queen Victoria; and not less fascinating are his simpler groups of students, artists, collectors, &c., such as 'La Lecture chez Diderot' (1859), 'Les Amateurs de Peinture' (1860), and 'La Lecture du Manuscrit' (1867). He also executed some striking portraits, including 'Dumas fils' (1877) and 'M. Victor Lefranc' (1883). The cartoons of his design for the decoration of the Panthéon—'the apotheosis of France'—were exhibited in 1889. He etched some dozen plates; and many of his pictures are familiar from engravings. He became a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1867, Grand Cross 1889, and a member of the Institute in 1861; and he was an honorary member of the Royal Academy. He died 31st January 1891. See works on him by Clarette (1881) and Larroumet (1893), and the Art Annual for 1893. An exhibition of his works was held at Paris in 1884. His son Jean Charles (born 1848) paints in his father's manner.