CHAPTER VIII

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Three painters, and a school for pifferari -- Gabriel Decamps, Eugene Delacroix, and Horace Vernet -- The prices of pictures in the forties -- Delacroix' find no purchasers at all -- Decamps' drawings fetch a thousand francs each -- Decamps not a happy man -- The cause of his unhappiness -- The man and the painter -- He finds no pleasure in being popular -- Eugene Delacroix -- His contempt for the bourgeoisie -- A parallel between Delacroix and Shakespeare -- Was Delacroix tall or short? -- His love of flowers -- His delicate health -- His personal appearance -- His indifference to the love-passion -- George Sand and Delacroix -- A miscarried love-scene -- Delacroix' housekeeper, Jenny Leguillou -- Delacroix does not want to pose as a model for one of George Sand's heroes -- Delacroix as a writer -- His approval of Carlyle's dictum, "Show me how a man sings," etc. -- His humour tempered by his reverence -- His failure as a caricaturist -- His practical jokes on would-be art-critics -- Delacroix at home -- His dress while at work -- Horace Vernet's, Paul Delaroche's, Ingres' -- Early at work -- He does not waste time over lunch -- How he spent his evenings -- His dislike of being reproduced in marble or on canvas after his death -- Horace Vernet -- The contrast between the two men and the two artists -- Vernet's appearance -- His own account of how he became a painter -- Moral and mental resemblance to Alexandre Dumas pere -- His political opinions -- Vernet and Nicholas I. -- A bold answer -- His opinion on the mental state of the Romanoffs -- The comic side of Vernet's character -- He thinks himself a Vauban -- His interviews with M. Thiers -- His admiration for everything military -- His worship of Alfred de Vigny -- His ineffectual attempts to paint a scene in connection with the storming of Constantine -- Laurent-Jan proposes to write an epic on it -- He gives a synopsis of the cantos -- Laurent-Jan lives "on the fat of the land" for six months -- A son of Napoleon's companion in exile, General Bertrand -- The chaplain of "la Belle-Poule" -- The first French priest who wore the English dress -- Horace Vernet and the veterans of "la grande armee" -- His studio during their occupancy of it as models -- His budget -- His hatred of pifferari -- A professor -- The Quartier-Latin revisited 164

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