1828, to Italy, and copied the works of the old masters. In 1840 he exhibited his first picture in the Salon, and for many years continued to paint sacred and classic subjects. His Hercules at the feet of Omphale; Pentheus pursued by the Manades; and The Charmer, are among his best works.

Jean Hippolyte Flandrin (1809-1864), born at Lyons, went to Paris to enter the school of the Beaux-Arts in 1829, where he carried off the grand prize for his picture of Theseus recognizing his Father at a Banquet. In 1832 he went to Rome and became a student in the French school, then presided over by Horace Vernet. The chief works produced by the young artist at this time were a scene from the "Inferno"; Euripides writing his Tragedies in a Cavern near Salamis; and S.

Claire, first Bishop of Nantes, healing the Blind. About 1839 he returned to Paris, and the next few years of his life were devoted to the decoration of churches.

were quite unable to afford to give their son an art education. In early life he displayed so much talent that the authorities of Cherbourg furnished him with the means of going to Paris and entering the studio of Paul Delaroche. But he showed no taste for historic painting, and after a short sojourn with Delaroche, he left that master and sought instruction from nature alone. He married, and settled at Barbizon near the Forest of Fontainebleau, and there, from

the fields and woods, and from the peasants, he took the subjects of his works. His first exhibited picture, the Milkwoman, appeared at the Salon in 1844; this was followed by the Reapers, Sheepshearers, Peasant grafting a Tree, and many other similar subjects. His Angelus du Noir and Death and the woodcutter are well known from engravings and etchings. His pictures now sell at fabulous prices.

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) sent his first picture to the Salon in 1844. He affected realism, and chose his models from the coarsest types. His landscapes with deer are among his best pictures. He joined the Communists in 1871, was imprisoned for his share in the destruction of the Column Vendôme, and when liberated went to live in Switzerland, where he died.

Constant Troyon (1810-1865) began life as a painter on porcelain. He soon, however, sought a wider field, and in 1833 began to exhibit in the Salon. His Fête at Sèvres and A Corner of the Park at St. Cloud, revealed his peculiar excellences as a landscape painter, but they were surpassed in 1841 by his View in Brittany, and somewhat later by his Going to Market, a small work of the very highest quality. Illustrating his careful study of nature, we may also name a Sedgy River with cattle grazing, Evening in the Meadows, and a Ferry Boat.

Jean François Millet (1815-1875), was born at Gréville, near Cherbourg, the son of peasants who

BY HENRI RÉGNAULT.

Thomas Couture (1815-1879), a native of Senlis, was a pupil of Gros and Delaroche. His most famous painting, The Romans in the Decadence of the Empire, appeared in 1847; it is at present in the Luxembourg. His works are mostly of an historic character.

Jean Louis Hamon (1821-1874) was educated for

his weird and fantastic designs soon brought him, and in nearly every Salon exhibited some painting. His canvases were as huge as those of Meissonier were minute. He not only rented two large studios, crowded with paintings, in Paris, but for a long time kept open to the public a gallery of his paintings, in Bond street, London. Many of his subjects are scriptural. We have already intimated that as a colorist Doré was not successful, and it may be added that his method of treatment was by no means suited to the large scale upon which he painted. Mr. Hamerton declares that Doré's best pictures are his Famille du Saltimbanque and Le Néophyte. Perhaps the most worthy to be added to the number are Day-break in the Alps, L'Alsace, and Christ Leaving the Pretorium; the last is strong in design and of a poweful naturalism, though of violent contrast in colors and sensational in treatment. But after all Doré was but a respectable painter and sculptor. His name is inevitably associated with the fantastic, the quaint, the visionary and the picturesque. He died in the prime of his manhood at Paris, in the month of January, 1883.

CONTEMPORARY FRENCH PAINTERS.

High as is the position in modern French art given to Meissonier by the critics, it cannot be doubted that his hold on the educated art public is even stronger. He may be said to have originated miniature genre painting; but the boldness of his execution and the strong general effect of his brush is not less noticeable than his wonderful skill in crowding a mass of details into a minute compass. As an instance of this latter power one might cite a single book illustration, which, in less than an inch square, has no less than eleven distinct characteristic and typical heads of Indians. To find a Meissonier at a Salon, it has been said, go where the crowd is thickest. Of his tireless industry and devotion to his art, and the surprising value attached to anything bearing his signature, many stories are told; as that a dealer, whom he was accustomed to visit, gained largely by selling trifling sketches, drawn on scraps of paper, by Meissonier while conversing. A pleasant anecdote relates that he stepped into a friend's house one day, and, finding him absent, amused himself by knocking the balls about on a billiard table. To his dismay, he suddenly cut the cloth with his cue. A happy

thought struck him; and drawing a bold and characteristic sketch, he signed it "Meissonier," and pinned it on the cloth. That sketch, says the narrator, was worth more than the table.

Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier was born, probably, in 1811 or 1812, at Lyons. A youth of poverty ended in his becoming a student in the atelier of M. Léon Cogniet. His first effort to attract attention was in 1836, when he exhibited The Little Messenger. From that day his fame steadily increased; he became a favorite of the second Empire, and a still greater favorite with the public. There is little doubt that he formerly suffered somewhat at the hands of the Salon authorities through jealousy. His paintings exceed eighty in number, and of his book illustrations and sketches there is no end. We can only indicate the names and general features of his best works-adding only in regard to his personal history, that, though he served the Empire faithfully as a volunteer, he is now devotedly attached to the Republic; that he is so conscientious in his art, that he will spend hours in watching the movement of a particular muscle of a horse; and that his work has brought him money and honors of all sorts. The strong, yet fine, features of his face will be noticed in the portrait among the group of living French painters.

Perhaps the most noted of Meissonier's pictures is La Rixe, which we may translate as the The Tavern Brawl. The spirit and intenseness of the four principal figures is beyond praise. Cards and dicebox, table and chairs, lie on the floor, hurled down in the sudden quarrel, while the two enemies, in the very act of onslaught, are held back by their cooler friends. It was painted in 1862, and engravings of it are common. The Halt, which we give as a specimen of Meissonier, is of a quieter subject, but is wonderfully well finished, and illustrates the truth that, while our artist gloried in "the infinitely little," he is yet one of the most masculine of painters. The Emperor at Solferino, The Retreat of Napoleon after the Battle of Leipsic, Marshal Saxe and his Staff are among the best of his military pictures. The Game of Bowls, The Chess Players, The Smoker and The Flemish Smoker are chefs d'œuvre as genre pictures. A peculiarity of his figure-pieces is that he very seldom has introduced a female form. The wonderful exactness of his male figures is said to be due to the fact that he