There is only Puvis de Chavannes who holds his place; as for all the others, one must gild their monuments.
Meissonier.
CCXXIX
PRUDHON
In short, he has his own manner; he is the Boucher, the Watteau of our day. We must let him do as he will; it can do no harm at the present time, and in the state the school is in. He deceives himself, but it is not given to every one to deceive themselves like him; his talent has a sure foundation. What I cannot forgive him is that he always draws the same heads, the same arms, and the same hands. All his faces have the same expression, and this expression is always the same grimace. It is not thus we should envisage nature, we who are disciples and admirers of the ancients.
L. David.
CCXXX
ON DELACROIX