Van der Meulen, a native of Brussels and pupil of Snayers, was the historiographer of Louis XIV.’s campaigns and victories. He was invited by Colbert to come to Paris, and was first employed to furnish designs for the Gobelins manufactory. Afterwards he accompanied Louis XIV. on his warlike expeditions, which he immortalised in numerous large paintings, most of which are now at the Louvre and in the Château at Versailles. His paintings are of considerable topographical interest, as they give accurate representations of the aspect of famous towns and fortresses in the seventeenth century, as in the _Entry of Louis XIV. and Marie-Thérèse into Arras_ (No. 2035), a similar scene at _Douai_ (No. 2033), and the _Arrival of the King in the Camp before Maastricht_ (No. 2040). It was Van der Meulen who founded the “tactical school” of battle painting, which substituted the orderly movement of masses for the wild mêlée of the hand-to-hand combat. Whole armies are seen advancing or retreating in long lines from a high vantage-ground which is generally occupied by the considerably larger figures of the army-leaders on rearing and caracoling horses, and looking for all the world like “_gens de qualité qui joueraient aux échecs avec des soldats de plomb_.” The official Catalogue mentions no fewer than twenty pictures by Van der Meulen. MINOR FLEMISH PAINTERS With the exception of Justus Sustermans (1597-1681), who was Van Dyck’s fellow-student under H. van Balen and afterwards rose to great fame as Court painter to Grand-Duke Cosimo II. of Tuscany (whose kinsman _Leopold de’ Medici_ is portrayed in No. 2154), and Pieter Neefs (1577?-1661?), whose _Church Interiors_ (Nos. 2059-2064) are remarkable for the faultless accuracy and precision of his architectural drawing, there are no other painters of the Flemish school whose works at the Louvre require close attention. We must content ourselves with the mere mention of the landscape painters Jan Frans van Bloemen, called Orizonte, a follower of Poussin and Claude; Jan van Breda, Francisque Millet, and Mathys Schoevaerts; Carl van Falens and Anton Grief, painters of hunting scenes; Jan Miel, who worked most of his life in Italy and was completely influenced by the masters of that country; the still-life painter Gaspard Pieter Verbruggen; the battle painter Sebastiaen Francken; and the prolific painter of large altarpieces, Jacob van Oost the Elder. With Balthasar Paul Ommeganck (1755-1826) and the still-life painter Jan Frans van Dael (1764-1840) we reach the beginning of the nineteenth century, a period of absolute stagnation in Flemish art which preceded the brilliant revival of the modern Belgian school. THE GERMAN SCHOOL