The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1891-11-18
MISSIONER.
METHODS AND FOIELES OF A
GREAT FRENCH ARTIST.
The Fabulous Sums He Received
for His NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
"reminiscences of the Ec-
centric Painter.

who died IN Paris recently, spent money
with both hands. He built himself or
the M~alesherbes place in Paris a house
that was a wonder of taste. He kept s
country seat in the grand style of the
millionaire aristocrat. He bought every
thing be wished right and left without
once stopping to calculate his immediate
income. His ability to be thus reckless
with IMMUNITY was due to his urparal-
leled success in making his high art
@ financial success. Few if any other
modern painters have persistently de-
smanded and received such great material
recognition of their work. The prices
paid repeatedly for his tiny canvastss have
been fabulously high. A Frenchman has
calculated since his death that nom OF
his well known works. is to be had fol
much less than $500 a square inch.
At the Secretan sale seven little genre
tpictures by Meissonier went for S1O1 900
gle Vim DIV Cure" on wood, four and
!one-one half inches high by six inches
wide. done in 1860, brought $4,000;
Gle Peintre ct rAmateur." on wood,
nine by four inches, 1859, S12, 500;
ssJoune Homme Ecrivant Une Lettre,"
Eon wood, nine by seven inches, 1882.
$13, 900; "Joueurs de Boules aus Yer
,sailles," on wood, five and one-half by
eight. 1S47, $14, 200; "Joueurs de
Boules a Antibes," on wood, five by
seven inches, 1869, 81, 1000; "Liseur
EN- Costume Rose" on wood, eight by
six inches, 1854, SIS, 200; "Le Coup de
i,Etrior," on wood, nine by five inches,
date unknown, SIG, 00O.
l. Neissonier was never to be shaken IN
Ibis demands for enormous prices. Often,
after finishing a picture, he doubled the
estimate he had made of its value before
beginning it. Emperor Napoleon III.
originally appropriated $50, 900 for the
picture Napoleon III. at Solferino.'
After completing the work on it Mels-
sonier gave him the alternative between
paving $40, 900 and letting his most
Famous portrait fall into strange hands.
Richard Wallace agreed to give the
painter $50, 900 for putting on canvas
1tNapoleon in the Battle at Friedland.
MISSIONER did the picture, and refused
to let 1t go for less than $50, 900. When
Wallace dcmurred, Meissonier coolly sold
the painting at his price to an American
who did not haggle.
! Meissonier's masterpiece, "1814," is
known as the most expensive painting in
the world. 1t is twenty inches high by
thirty inches wide, and was last sold for
$40, 600. 1t represents Napoleon 1.
and his great general staff riding back
from the scene of their defeat. 1t came
to be painted in this wise: In 1870 NJ.
IDelhante, a rich business man with a
taste for art, found M~cissonier at work
in his studio on one of his microscopic
canvases.
"What does it representa-" he asked.
ga military subject, to which I will
give the title '1814.'"
"Your subject is very great and your
canvas is very small, NJ. Aeissonier, "
said Delhante. Why do you not paint q
larger pic~ture9"
Ii 81 have laid it in small for two
reasons-frst, because that is my style Of
painting; second, because, to speak
openly, I need money. I work slowly,
and am able to finish a little picture
much sooner than a large one"
$50 you need money. Well, paint
my portrait. What will it cost2"
"Five thousand dollars"
q Delhante drew out his purse and laid
the money on the table. "Now, I wish
also for myself the picture 1884," he
continued, shut on the condition that
you do it Oh a larger canvas"
b Some time later, when the portrait
was completed, Meissonier showed his
patron the outlines of a new "1S14,'
with the question: SIS that large enough
Tor you9"
4 "Just right. What will it costa"
ttFourteen thousand dollars"
CAN right: there is half the price"
B The picture wa painted, paid for, and
delivered, and in 1864 was exhibited II
HE Salon. An Englishman offered $780,.
900 for it, but Delhante held back,
Vanderbilt increased the offer to $780,
1000, vet failed to secure the picture,
Finally NJ. Bague, a connoisseur, got it
+. for 800, 900, and, after keeping it il
ibis possession for one day, made tht
famous sale of it to n. Chauchard fol-
$50, 900. This was the first time
great painter had seen with his own eye:
such q triumph of his art. Those wht
have approached most closely his success
were Munkaczy, with his "Christ before
|Pilate," which sold for 500, 900; Millet
with his "Angelus." for which $12O, 0Ot
was paid, and Murillo, with his ''Ascen
sion," $3.50, 600.
( In the work behind his great artistic
and financial success MISSIONER followed
closely the suggestion of the German
Iproverb, "Kein Preis ohne Fleiss." Al
experience of Mcneil and Pietsch in hi
studio in 1867 illustrates the infnit'
Ipainstaking with which all his great pic
lures were painted. "1S07," or th
!"Cuirassiers of Friedland" was un6n
ished on his easel. In reponse to a com
tment from one of his visitors Meissione
explained the nature of the worl
he had done in order to b
able to do it. s'The way of the cuiras
'slers to the enemy" he said, clay over
field of grain, still colored with the tint
, of June green. Infantry had alread.
marched over the field and had trodder
down the blades. To get this efec
perfect before my eyes I had a field nea
my house in the country planted to ry'
i'm the fall. In the following Nav. wher