The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-20 00:00:00

M, Meissonier's Two Napoleon Pictu.

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The pictures that have most attracted attenti:lA
are two by Meissonier—one " a Retreat in 1814,'
and the other " the Emperor at Solferino." This,
I believe, is the first time this painter has treated
military subjects, and in the opinion of competent
judges he has obtained wonderful success,
and shown a talent which no one suspected him of
possessing. Under a cold, cheerless sky, covered
with mist falling in sleet, you see a number of
horseman riding along at a slow pace. It
is the Emperor, followed by his Staff, while a
column of the army follows at some distance.
The subject is the campaign of 1814, in which
Napoleon's geeius showed itself greater than,
perhaps, at any time during his wonderful career.
'l:he ground they ride over is broken up into deer
ruts by the heavy artillery, or trampled into small
heaps of mud, coloured by the halt-melted snow
which covers the distant plain, not yet trodden
under foot by the troops. Nothing can be more
dreery than the scene; the garments of the teen
are soaked through with sleet, and the men them-
selves broken down with long fighting, long
watching, end forced marches. We perceive
that no sound is heard but the horses' hoofs and
the monotonous tramping of men's feet ; and not
one of the numerous staff that ride behind the
Emperor but whose countenance tells a tale of ex-
haustion and almost of despair. The Emperor him-
self, mounted on a white horse, his hat down to his
eyes, his right hand with the riding whip hanging
from a thong round the wrist thrust into the breast
of his grey overcoat, which reaches to his face, and
is closely buttoned round him, rides a pace or two
in front. His features, firm and fixed as stone,
betray no fatigue and no consciousness of the incle.
went sky and the dreary field. His lips are firmly
pressed together, and his eyes look inward, as if, still
unco►:quered, and not yet exhausted in resources,
be was conceiving some new plan of battle. Nothing
can be more intensely resolute than the expression
of that face ; but it expresses no hope of success—
nothing but the fierce resolve to struggle to the very
last. He moves on wrapped up in his thoughts, and
insensible to all around. The officers of his Staff fol-
low him, their uniforms wholly or partly covered by
thick cloaks, or overcoats, brown, blue, grey, old or
new, close buttoned, or loose, like that of Ney, who
is easily recognised in his old brown surtout fastened
only by a single button, which you see muat shortly
give way. The horses are as tired as the riders,
and it requires close attention to the bridle to keep
them from falling. So far as we can perceive, the

-
aces of these men are thoughtful, almost despond-

ing, pale, but still determined like their chief, but
like him, too, hardly hoping. In spite of the moral
energy that still supports them, two or three among
them cannot hold out, and the heads moving with

the pace of the horse, or drooping to saddle bow
show that there is a limit to human strength, and
that sleep has overpowered them. No one
speaks to the other, and the only sign of life
is where a young officer in a Hussar
uniform rises a little in his stirrups, and looks
back at some object behind. At a distance a
column of infantry is moving along the whitened
plain on a line parallel to the Staff; and, though the
whole picture is not much larger than the lid of a
small box, the eye can easily detect the drummers
with their instruments at their back, and tLe shakos
of the mounted officers above the column.
_ .

Another picture of the same dimensions, and by
the same hand, " L'Empereur (Napoleon III.) a
Solferino," is almost equally worthy of attention.
It is not a battle piece in the strict sense of the
word; and there are no masses of men mingling in
a deadly conflict, nor is the ground encumbered
with heaps of slain. The prominent figure is the
Emperor on horseback, with his Staff, watching
from an eminence which commands a vast plain the
tide of battle as it ebbs and flows. Under the height
en which he stands men are working a battery of ar-
tillery ; and an army is in movement along the heights
that bound the horizon. The Emperor bends slightly
forward in his saddle. Some of the officers of the
Staff show much curiosity about what is passing
yonder, and try to guess on the fate of the day from
the Emperor's features, evidently in vain; but the
rest evince no such impatience, but stand ready
to execute any orders given to them. A few dead
bodies, Austrians, as may be se= from their white
coats and light blue pantaloons, are lying here and
there. In the picture the Emperor is only a few
inches high, but the resemblance is striking, and
some persons think it is more life-like than any
portrait yet made of him.