ion to pay for all the
dinners to which the prudent host had invited the artist.

The world of subjects included in Meissonier's art was a very narrow
one, and was not calculated to interest men and women in general. The
nearest that he came to striking the popular note was in his Napoleon
subjects, and beside the excellence of the painting, these pictures
really make a valuable series of historical documents by reason of
their accuracy. But the greater number of the pictures which he left
behind him are chiefly interesting from the beautiful way in which
they are painted: we accept the subject for the sake of the art. The
world rewarded him for all this patient labor, this exquisite
workmanship, by an immense fortune that enabled him to live in
splendor, and to be generous without stint. From the humble lodgings
of his youth in the Rue des Ecouffes, he passed, in time, to the
palace in the Place Malsherbes where he spent the latter half of his
long life in luxurious surroundings: pictures and statues, rich
furniture, tapestries and armor and curiosities of art from every
land. But the visitor, after passing through all this splendor, came
upon the artist in a studio, ample and well lighted indeed, but
furnished only for work, where, to the end of his life, he pursued his
industrious calling with all the energy and ardor of youth. He died in
1891, and was buried by the government with all the honors that
befitted one of her most illustrious citizens.

[Signature of the author.]

ROSA BONHEUR[8]

[Footnote 8: Copyright, 1894, by Selmar Hess.]

By CLARENCE COOK

(BORN 1822)

A girl of something over ten, of sturdy build, with a dark complexion,
deep blue eyes, and strong features crowned by a head of clustering
curls, is sitting in the window of a plainly furnished room, high up
in an apartment-house in Paris. In a cage at her side is a parrot,
which, with its head on one side, is gravely calling out the letters
of the alphabet, while the child as gravely repeats them, interrupting
the lesson every now and then by a visit to the other side of the
room, where a pet lamb greets its young mistress with a friendly
bleat.

This is our first glimpse of Rosalie, known now to all the world as
Rosa Bonheur, the painter of "The Horse Fair" and of many another
picture, which have earned for her the distinction of the best
animal-painter of her time.

Her father's family belonged to Bordeaux. Raymond Bon