Eugène Fromentin, who was as celebrated as a writer as he was as a painter, is represented in the Musée Condé by one of his finest landscapes. Transported to the Marshes of Medeah, a country so well described by him in his book _Un Éte dans le Sahara_, we see in the foreground three Bedouin chiefs, mounted on splendid Arab steeds, engaged in hawking. The atmosphere is transparent and clear, refreshed as it were by a recent shower, and the sky is flecked by white clouds. This artist, who died in 1876, was one of the most accomplished men of his time. By his contemporary Meissonier there are several paintings at Chantilly; the most important being _Les Cuirassiers de 1805 avant le Combat_. The moment is just before a projected attack; and the look of strained expectation upon the faces of the combatants is admirably expressed. Napoleon, surrounded by his staff, is easily recognised; and in the varying expressions of the long line of horsemen we perceive looks of determination to win or die. The reproach made by Mauclair to Meissonier that his style suffered from lack of originality and was copied from Dutch artists, if sometimes well founded, may at any rate be questioned by this picture. His _La Vedette des Dragons sous Louis XV_, though small in dimensions, is another important historical picture, whilst _Les Amateurs des Tableaux_ recalls a similar composition in the Wallace Collection. [Illustration: PLATE LXXVI. ARAB CHIEFS HAWKING IN THE DESERT. _Photo Giraudon._ _Musée Condé._ Eugène Fromentin.] Meissonier's best pupil was Jean Baptiste Detaille, the famous painter of battle-pieces. There is a picture of his at Chantilly entitled _Les Grenadiers à cheval à Eylau_,[140] where a gallant French officer with the cry "_Haut les Têtes_" leads his regiment on to victory. This is one of the _chef d'oeuvres_ of this artist, whose recent death is so much to be deplored. Of quite a different nature are the allegorical paintings of P. J. Aimé Baudry. The excellence of this master lies principally in decoration, as may be seen by his _Vision of St. Hubert_ in the Galerie des Cerfs; and he may be considered one of the most talented of the French artists who flourished during the second half of the nineteenth century. Winterhalter, who, although a native of Baden, acquired his artistic education in Paris and Rome, was one of the Court Painters to both Louis Philippe and Napoleon III. His portrait of the _Duc d'Aumale_ at the age of eighteen, as Commander of his regiment before his victorious campaign in Algiers, is at Chantilly; and there is here also a companion portrait of the _Duchesse_ as a young bride. She is clad in white, with a single rose in her fair hair, and her face is full of refinement and delicacy.