MF.1'NIKK, 



MKLYILU. 111. UMAX. 



I 



etching, but his eulogists consider that the im- 

 >s of his detail is lost sight of in a general 



ness nl rtTrrt." 



;.ath uf Meiasonier. which was followed by 



np"ii>p"iis funeral. In- h- ft a widow, to whom he 

 i.irncd a fi-w years In-fore, and a son, 

 Charles Meissonier, a painter of some taleni. 

 mother, McisMi nier's first wife, was aM-ter 

 if the artist Sieinheil. Meissomcr's career was 

 rendered extraordinary l.y his isolated position 

 in art. the perfection of his execution, the re- 

 markal'lc prices paid for his work, and the ex- 

 alted place which he occupied in the popular 

 estimation. For nearly two generations this 

 painter of the infinitely little" ruled the king- 

 dom of Liliput alone. lie was imitated by 

 artists like I'lassan, Chavct, Ficliel, and Fichclet. 

 lie was approached only \>\ iiargue. Among 

 artists <>!' the past he was compared with the 

 Dutch masters n| ihe sc\cnleeiith century, with 

 Terburg. (ierard Dow. Met/u. and Mieris. So 

 i xi c at ion is concerned, his best work de- 

 serves much of the admiration which has been 

 lavished upon it. His executive ability in his 

 chosen field was something to wonder at. His 

 finest achievements will always retain a real and 

 a considerable value. That his was the highest 

 art no one can claim seriously. It was the 

 how " rather than the " what '' which interested 

 him. The ideal, the sentimental, the moral, 

 never found expression in his art. He remained 

 unmoved by contemporary currents of thought 

 and feeling, and a conception of humanity for 

 humanity's sake was reflected in nothing which 

 he did. He was u virtuoso among painters, or. to 

 use another simile, a splendid mechanism. It is 

 natural that there should have been some differ- 

 ences among hiscritics. His admirer Theophile 

 Gander claims for his work "the serious quali- 

 ties of grand painting"; Menard wrote that 

 " it is always the man rather than the accessories 

 which play's the principal part in his pictures"; 

 Kdmond About pointed to his faultless drawing 

 and the "dignity and elegance of his liliputian 

 personages": and Ohesncau emphasized Meis- 

 sonier's stiiily of the " expression of feeling, 

 especially the refinements of the intellect." 

 Much of this may be admitted without affecting 

 the final judgment upon Meissonier's art. It is 

 not enough to say. as one writer has said, that 

 Meissonier's pictures interest the mind like 

 clockwork, . . . like any fine and successful ex- 

 hibition of the mechanical talent.'' It is not 

 an unfair summary which Ilamerton made when 

 he wrote: "Perfection in any kind of art is so 

 rare, that when we meet with it we are sure to 

 take notice of it. ... Meissonier is not a man 

 of any grandeur or sublimity of genius, and he 

 has apparently no tenderness, but, his keen ob- 

 servation and ready, accurate hand have made 

 him king of his own realm in art. and his work, 

 I suppose, will never diminish in money value, 

 because such work must always be excessively 

 rare." 



Of hardly less interest to the student of char- 

 acter is Meissonier's independence of the art as 

 well as tlic actual life of his time. His boyhood 

 wastheold age of David, the leader of the classical 

 school in which Ingres and Isabey were the fore- 

 iiiost pupils. I5ut Meissonier was no more in- 

 fected with classicism than with romanticism 



when Delacroix headed the romantic 

 Severe academic art a* typified in 1'uul Dclarochc 

 never swerved him from his purpose. The in- 

 ll'ienee of ('iiistiille c.nd I'loniunglon, which 

 stimulated Theodore RousM-aii, "the father of 

 modern French landhcajH' art," anYcl.d Mcitt- 

 sonicr not a whit. Hcforc Turner's death 



nier himself had become an inflm n 

 French art and a bone of contention for 

 He saw Millet, Con it Duj.n', and Diax wn 

 recognition, and finally fame. His life-time 

 stretched from the classicism of David to Ihe 

 impressionism of Claude .Monet and Degas His 

 purposes, his methods, and to a great extent his 

 subjects were the same at the end as at the be- 

 ginning of his career. 



In other respects also Meissonier was excep- 

 tional. No artist of this century received iti his 

 life-time such prices as have been paid to Meis- 

 scnier or his agent for his works For the 

 ' 1807 " he received $60.000, and for the " Arrival 

 at the Chateau," in the Vanderbilt gallery, $40,- 

 000. His " 1604," formerly in the Delahante col- 

 lection, was re-sold by dealers to M. Chauchard, 

 the owner of Millet's " Angelus," for a price re- 

 ported to be $ 100,000. Yet Meisfonier was not a 

 rich man, and it was an effort for him to main- 

 tain his two costly establishments in the Boule- 

 vard Malesherbes, and at Poissy. In both cases he 

 was the architect, and at his country house he-was 

 the designer of even the furniture and the silver 

 table service. Both places have been frequently 

 described by newspaper correspondents, for 

 whom this "artist of millionaires" has been a 

 never ending-theme. In person, Meissonier was 

 small, almost dwarfish, with bowed shoulders, 

 long white hair, a flowing white beard, promi- 

 nent, slightly hooked nose, and keen dark eyes. 



The number of Meissonier's paintings owned 

 in this country may be estimated at about 75. 

 Among the owners are the Metropolitan Museum 

 of Art, Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt, Cornelius 

 Vanderbilt, Mrs. Paran Stevens, William W. 

 Astor. J. D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, D. O. Mills. 

 Theodore Havemeyer, and Henry C. Gibson, of 

 Philadelphia. 



MELVILLE, HERMAN, an American ro- 

 mancer, born in New York city, Aug. 1, 1819; died 

 there,Sept.28, 18JM. Hisgreat-grandfat her, Allan 

 Melville, emigrated to America from Scotland in 

 1748, and established himself as a merchant in 

 Boston. Allan's son. Major Thomas Melville, 

 was a member of the Boston "tea" party." He 

 was the last person in that city to retain "the old- 

 fashioned cocked hat and knee breeches, and in 

 this way became the original of Dr. Holmes's 

 poem, "The Last Leaf." His son Allan, father 

 of Herman, was nn importing merchant of New 

 York, a gentleman of fine culture, and an exten- 

 sive traveler. On his mother's side, Herman 

 was descended from Gen. Peter (iaiisevoort. also 

 of Revolutionary fame, and known as "the hero 

 of Fort Stanwix " His father's early death com- 

 pelled the lad, who had passed most of his boy- 

 hood at and near Albany, to seek his own fortune. 

 His fondness for English composition was earlv 

 noticed by his Albany instructor. Dr. Charles F.. 

 West, now of Brooklyn, N. Y. It was doubtless 

 the stories of travel told by his father and a sea- 

 faring uncle which originally influenced Mel- 

 ville to follow the sea as a vocation, and to ship 



