Van der Meulen, a native of Brussels and pupil of Snayers, was the
historiographer of Louis XIV.’s campaigns and victories. He was invited
by Colbert to come to Paris, and was first employed to furnish designs
for the Gobelins manufactory. Afterwards he accompanied Louis XIV.
on his warlike expeditions, which he immortalised in numerous large
paintings, most of which are now at the Louvre and in the Château at
Versailles. His paintings are of considerable topographical interest,
as they give accurate representations of the aspect of famous towns
and fortresses in the seventeenth century, as in the _Entry of Louis
XIV. and Marie-Thérèse into Arras_ (No. 2035), a similar scene at
_Douai_ (No. 2033), and the _Arrival of the King in the Camp before
Maastricht_ (No. 2040). It was Van der Meulen who founded the “tactical
school” of battle painting, which substituted the orderly movement of
masses for the wild mêlée of the hand-to-hand combat. Whole armies are
seen advancing or retreating in long lines from a high vantage-ground
which is generally occupied by the considerably larger figures of the
army-leaders on rearing and caracoling horses, and looking for all the
world like “_gens de qualité qui joueraient aux échecs avec des soldats
de plomb_.” The official Catalogue mentions no fewer than twenty
pictures by Van der Meulen.