He was the Meissonier among the theater artists.

I believe that the reason why this supreme manual excellence is so completely lacking, even in French art, that, so far as I know, only Meissonier amongst them has attained a measure of it, is that the seriousness of life and purpose necessary for any consummate achievement is so rarely found there in conjunction with that early and sound training.

And then there came the works of that other school which lavishes the finish of a Meissonier on the most meretricious compositions.