The most beautiful of all Meissonier's etchings are, without question: _The Violin_, which he engraved with a burin at once powerful, delicate and, as some critics phrase it, "vibrant," to adorn the visiting card of the celebrated lute player, Vuillaume; _The Signor Annibale_, representing, in braggadocio pose and costume, the celebrated actor, Régnier, of the Comédie-Française, in a rôle that is by no means the least celebrated in Augier's _Adventuress_; and _The Troopers_, seven figures whose personalities stand out rather curiously and exhibit a picturesque diversity. _The Reporting Sergeant_ was a miniature sketch made, in order to try the ground, on the margin of the plate on which _The Smoker_ was etched. It is a finished and charming little work, full of expression, of life and actuality, condensed into a microscopic square of paper. But what of his paintings? We left them for a time, in order to clear up certain points regarding Meissonier's incursion into the realm of the engraver,--an incursion from which he brought back, incidentally, both fame and fortune. PAINTINGS He profited from it above all in being able to continue to paint. For the fact remains that, from the time of his youngest efforts, such as _The Patrol Removing a Body from an Outpost_, his earliest known work, one of the collection that his father bought, to swell somewhat that famous monthly income of fifteen francs, he never abandoned his brushes. We left him unsuccessfully exhibiting, at the Salon of 1834, a small painting, dealing with a Flemish subject. Let us add, as a final word, that this _genre_ picture was accompanied by an aquarelle, entered in the catalogue of that date as: _Soldier to Whom in the Citizen's House, a Young Girl serves a Mug of Beer_. This aquarelle was purchased for one hundred francs by the Society of Friends of Art. The following year he did not exhibit. This, unfortunately, was not because he had nothing to offer; but the pictures that he sent, consisting of _The Chess Players_ and _The Little Messenger_, had not been accepted by the jury. There was an excess of severity in this refusal; and in spite of the fact that the candidate for admission was still under the age of twenty, the two pictures offered possessed certain genuine qualities that rendered the sentence of the jury cruelly unjust. Such was the opinion of the artist, who in 1836 offered the same pictures over again; it was also the opinion of the jury of that year, for it accepted them. Two years later, Meissonier exhibited a _Monk Consoling a Dying Man_. This canvas attracted the attention of the Duke of Orleans, who bought it for five hundred francs. (Fourteen years later, at the sale consequent upon the Duke's death, this same _Monk_ was resold for 4,000 francs.)