Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-12-30
MEisSoNlER.

cally prodigious gilt Tor taking pains.
Everything about him shows this DOM
inant trait-even the houses, or rather
the palaces, in which he lives. He has
not only earned the money for them by
his work, but he has built them from
his own designs. One of them is in
the Boulevard Malesherbes, just on the
edge of the artistic quarter OF the Fare
Monceau, and the other at Poissy, on
the Seine, fayorite retreat for paint
ers, few miles out of Paris.
The town house is in the early Italian
style, and it bears the stamp of Meis-
sonier's taste and of his idiosyncrasy
within and without. The very stones
are Joined in particular way-that Is
to say, as carefully as cabinetmakers'
work-and the masons had to be paid
good deal extra for their labor. The
inside, with it's long corridors and spa
cious staircase, is rich in neatly carved
oak. all done from Meissonier's own
drawings. There are two studios,
\ very large one which is fitted up as q
kind of museum, and smaller, in
which the painter generally works; and
from this runs, by small door, a ter
race forming the roof of a colonnade,
on which he takes the air.
81 always model" he says, "before
| begin to draw and paint; like to set
tie all my difficulties before l take up
the brush. When that is done and l
know exactly what | want to get, then
draw at my leisure He likes to act
as cicerone to his own museum, and to
show you, for instance, the tiny coach
of the time of Louis Kill, with the
leathern spring straps and the curious
angular body, and painted panels, and
huge wheels, evidently some model OF
the PERIOD and finished in every part
with minutest care. A little farther on
is miniature gondola that could take
the water. .9This horse" says the
painter, pointing to small wax model
of high-stepper, ''gave me Infinite
trouble. wanted him for one of my
pictures, and, as the attitude was a
very difficult one, it was perfectly inn
possible to draw direct from nature, so
/ had to settle the question once for all
in the wax. | used to have a horse
brought in every day and made to
prance. 1t killed him in the long run,
and it nearly killed me. But at last |
cot what wanted, and here it is; and
now, as you see, | eau spend twelve
month in making my drawing from it,
and am always sure of finding the posi-
ton exactly where left off. This good
fellow" patting the horses TANKS,
..neyer budges. Then there was an
other thing to do when l had got him
in pose-he had to be harnessed; and
so / had a set of harness made to scale
and put him in it, so that every glrth
and strap exactly adapts itself to the
movements of his body. l have left
nothing to the Imagination, nothing to
chance, because there is only one way
of getting such things right; and that
is, to see them as they are. When he
was modelled and harnessed, the next
thing was the question of his shadow.
put him in the strong sunlight, with a
sheet of paper on the table, and the
moment l had got the shadow wanted
rapidly drew the outline of it on the
white sheet. had to make haste, for
the light shifts so rapidly that the out
line was constantly changing. How
ever, l got it, and all had to do then
was to transfer it bodily to the canvas,
and so, you see, work from nature all
through, but in my own way.
''This other horse, that has just rolled
over as if hit by shot, is for the fore
ground of the war picture. This cav.
alier with his cloak flying to the wind
is for one of my single figure studies Of
seventeenth century life This, by the
way, is perfect monument of patient
labor; the man is riding against the
wind, and his small cloak, stepped ap'
parently in some stiffening solution, is
blown back and fixed in picturesque
folds. 1t is so lifelike that you can al
most hear the rushing breezes before it.
''Sometimes, you see said the AT
fist, 81 am able to get the very thing
,, instead of model. HE j, some mar
ness of King Mur:;t III, H..,". =, n-,'ll
his horse just RS n;s't:' 81, :, e.
the man that rode him. This old fadet
leather is embossed all over with orna
ments, not only in the empire style, bu
, in any other that struck Murat's not tot
critical fancy. The stitching, if yol
} please, is not in thread, OF even in silk
but in silver" Meissonier rubs the sill.
yer with his thumb-nail until the meta
shines. 'That is the way Murat wen
into fight. london Nea0s.