The Orient was by no means the uncontested field of the Romanticists.
But the followers of the official school who devoted themselves to
the depicting of Eastern life and scenery, approached these subjects
in the same spirit of _parti pris_ which robs all their work of real
significance—unless, like Henri Regnault (1843-1871) in his famous
and often reproduced _Moorish Execution_ (No. 771), they treated them
as rank melodrama. Regnault is, however, not to be judged by this
overrated piece of sensationalism. Killed in the Franco-German War in
1871 at the early age of twenty-eight, this young painter gave rare
promise of brilliant achievement in an altogether unacademic direction
in his superb equestrian portrait of _General Prim_ (No. 770). There is
something truly heroic in the way the Spanish general sits his horse,
arresting its forward movement with a sudden jerk at the reins; but
the ruggedness and unkempt appearance of the rider displeased General
Prim to such an extent that Regnault, who would not alter the picture,
preferred to keep it on his hands.