Let us add, for the sake of being complete, without wasting undue
space upon side-issues, that Meissonier also experimented in etching.
Authoritative critics assert that these attempts, in which the master
modestly refused to see anything more than "essays," will eventually
become "the most precious treasures that bear his signature."
[Illustration: PLATE IV.--1814
(Chauchard Bequest, Musée du Louvre)
This picture, so masterly and so dramatic in composition, is
assuredly one of the most widely known in existence. The sombre
visage of the Emperor, the severity of the landscape, the
prevailing tone of sadness, admirably rendered, explain the wide
favour enjoyed by this celebrated work, further popularized in
engravings.]
Besides, with one exception,--_The Smoker_, popularized by a large
printing,--they are quite limited in number, and already eagerly
sought after by collectors. And with all the more reason, because, at
the fairly distant period of which we speak, the perfected processes
for preserving the burined lines on the copper plate in all their
original fineness and precision had not yet been invented;
accordingly, the later proofs in his series of etchings betray a
wearing of the copper which could not fail to lower their value. At
the time of Meissonier's death, a proof of _The Preparations for the
Duel_, in which the signature was legible, "in the lower left corner,"
brought upward of one thousand francs.
The most beautiful of all Meissonier's etchings are, without question:
_The Violin_, which he engraved with a burin at once powerful,
delicate and, as some critics phrase it, "vibrant," to adorn the
visiting card of the celebrated lute player, Vuillaume; _The Signor
Annibale_, representing, in braggadocio pose and costume, the
celebrated actor, Régnier, of the Comédie-Française, in a rôle that is
by no means the least celebrated in Augier's _Adventuress_; and _The
Troopers_, seven figures whose personalities stand out rather
curiously and exhibit a picturesque diversity.
_The Reporting Sergeant_ was a miniature sketch made, in order to try
the ground, on the margin of the plate on which _The Smoker_ was
etched. It is a finished and charming little work, full of expression,
of life and actuality, condensed into a microscopic square of paper.
But what of his paintings? We left them for a time, in order to clear
up certain points regarding Meissonier's incursion into the realm of
the engraver,--an incursion from which he brought back, incidentally,
both fame and fortune.