Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1891-05-22
uEIss0NlER
iIyc-.---'orS AND FnIDurs OF a
1isEAr FRENCH alsrIs-.
THO Fabulous Sums He Received
Tor His NIasterpieces-Cur
"Reminiscences OF the &c
centric Painter.

Mels-naler. the great French artist
who died in Paris recently, spent money
with both hands. He built himself on
The DIalesherbes place in Paris house
shat was q wonder of taste. He kept n
country seat in the grand style of the
millionaire aristocrat. He bought every
thing he wished right and left without
once stopping to calculate his immediate
income. His ability to be thus reckless
with impunity was due to his unparal-
leled success in making his high art
financial success. Few ii any other
modern painters have pcrsistently de-
mandcd and received such great material
recognition of their work. The prices
paid repeatedly for his tiny canvascs have
been fabulously high. A Frenchman has
calculated since his death that mono of
his we'll known works is to be had for
much less than $500 square inch.
AT the Secretan sale seven little genre
pictures by Meissonicr went for Sol, 900.
''Lc Viz du Cure" on wood, four and
one-one half inches high by six inches
wide, done in 1860, brought $4,000;
"Le Peintrc ct rAmateur." OH wood,
nine by four inches, 1859, S12, 500;
''Joune Homme Ecrivant Une Lettre,"
on wood, nine by seven inches, 1882.
$4,000; "Joueurs dc Boules aus Yer
sailles," on wood, five and one-half by
eight, 1S47, $14.2OO; "Joucurs de
Boules a Antibes," on wood, five by
seven inches, 1869, $4,000; "Liseur
en- Costume Rose" on wood, eight by
six inches, 1854, $4,000; "Lo Coup dc
fEtrior," on wood. nine by five inches,
date unknown, $4,000.
Meissorier was never to be shaken in
his demands for enormous prices. Often,
after finishing picture, he doubled the
estimate he had made of its value before
beginning it. Emperor Napoleon III.
originally appropriated 500, 900 for the
picture Napoleon III. ut Solferino."
After completing the work on it Meis-
sonier gave him the alternative between
paying $40, 900 and letting his most
famous portrait fall into strange hands.
Richard Wallace agreed to give the
painter $4,000 for putting ON canvas
Napoleon in the Battle ut Fredland. ;"
Meissonier did the picture, and refused
to let 1t go for less than 100000. When
Wallace demurred, Meissonier coolly sold
the painting at his price to an American
who did not haggle.
Nleissoniers masterpiece, "1S14," is
known as the most expensive painting in
the world. 1t is twenty inches high by
thirty inches wide, aud was last sold for
$40, 900. 1t represents Napoleon I.
and his great general staff riding back
from the scene of their defeat. It came
to be painted in this wise. In 1870 NJ.
Delhante, a rich business man with n
taste for art, found Mcissonier ut work
i'll his studio on one of his microscopic
ranvascs.
''What does it representa- he asked.
ga military subject, to which l will
give the title '1S14.'"
"Your subject is very great and your
canvas is very small, NJ. 1Ieissonier,"
said Delhante. Why do you not paint
larger picture2"
II have laid it in small for two
reasons-frst, because that is my STYLE of
painting; second, because, to speak
openly, L need money. 1 work slowly,
and am able to 6sish II little picture
much sooner than large one"
$50 you need money. Well. paint
my portrait. What will it costG"
''Five thousand dollars"
Delhantc drew out his purse and laid
the money on the table. Nov, wish
also for myself the picture '1S14,'" he
continued. "but on the condition that
you do it on larger canvas"
Some time later, when the portrait
was completed, NIeissonier showed his
patron the outlines of new "1S14, F"
with the question: IT'S that large enough
for youl"
"Just right. What will it cost2"
"Fourteen thousand dollars"
''All right; there is half the price"
The picture was painted, paid for, and
delivered, and in 1864 was exhibited IN
the Salon. An Englishman offered $780,
600 for it, but Dclhantc held back.
Vanderbilt increased the offer to $780,
O0c, yet failed to secure the picture.
Finally NJ. Bague, n connoisseur, got it
for SlOo, 600, and, after keeping it in
his possession for one day, made the
famous safe of it to NJ. CAauchard for
$50, 600. This was the first time n
great painter had seen with his own ewes
such triumph of his art Those who
have approached most closely his success
were Munkaczy, with his "Christ before
Plate" which sold for 500, 600; NIillet,
with his "Angelus," for which S120, 600
was paid, and Murillo, with his "Ascen-
sion," $3.50, 900
In the work behind his great artistic
and financial success Meissonier followed
closely the suggestion of the German
proverb, "Kein Prcs ohne Flciss." An
experience of Mcneil and Pietsch in his
studio in 1867 illustrates the infinite
painstaking with which all his great pic
lures were painted. "1SO7,' OF the
"Cuirassiers of Friedland" was unfin-
ished on his easel. In reponsc to COM
ment from one of his visitors MISSIONER
explained the nature of the work
he had done in order to be
able to do it. "The way of the cuiras-
slers to the enemy" he said, clay over a
field of grain, still colored with the tints
of June green. Infantry had already
marched over the field and had trodden
down the blades. To get this effect
perfect before my eyes had field near
L.