Meissonier worked with elaborate care and a scrupulous observation of nature. Some of his works, as for instance his "1807", remained ten years in course of execution. To the great Exhibition of 1878 he contributed sixteen pictures: the portrait of Alexandre Dumas fils which had been seen at the Salon of 1877, "Cuirassiers of 1805", "A Venetian Painter", "Moreau and his Staff before Hohenlinden", a "Portrait of a Lady", the "Road to La Salice", "The Two Friends", "The Outpost of the Grand Guard", "A Scout", and "Dictating his Memoirs". Thenceforward he exhibited less in the Salons, and sent his work to smaller exhibitions. Being chosen president of the Great National Exhibition in 1883, he was represented there by such works as "The Pioneer", "The Army of the Rhine," "The Arrival of the Guests," and "Saint Mark."