Chapter VIII

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