of the Légion d'honneur and promoted to the higher grades in 1856, 1867 (June 29), and 1880 (July 12), receiving the Grand Cross in 1889 (October 29). He nevertheless cherished certain ambitions which remained unfulfilled. He hoped to become a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, but the appointment he desired was never given to him. He also aspired to be chosen deputy or made senator, but he was not elected. In 1861 he succeeded Abel de Pujol as member of the Academy of Fine Arts. On the occasion of the centenary festival in honour of Michelangelo in 1875 he was the delegate of the Institute of France to Florence, and spoke as its representative. Meissonier was an admirable draughtsman upon wood, his illustrations to Les Conties Rémois (engraved by Lavoignat), to Lamartine's Fall of an Angel to Paul and Virginia, and to The French Painted by Themselves being among the best known. The leading engravers and etchers of France have been engaged upon plates from the works of Meissonier, and many of these plates command the highest esteem of collectors. Meissonier died in Paris on 31 January 1891. When the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was re-vitalized, in 1890, Ernest Meissonier was elected its first chairman, but he died soon; his successor was Puvis de Chavannes. The vice-president was Auguste Rodin. His son, Jean Charles Meissonier, also a painter, was his father's pupil, and was admitted to the Légion d'honneur in 1889. Rue Meissonier, in the 17th Arrondissement in Paris, France, is named after him. In 2020, Meissonier's Joueurs d’échecs was restituted to the heirs of Marguerite Stern, from whom it was looted under the Nazis. Gallery Pupils Maurice Courant Édouard Detaille Daniel Ridgway Knight Charles Meissonier Louis Monziès Alphonse Moutte Gaylord Sangston Truesdell See also Military art List of claims for restitution for Nazi-looted art Notes References Further reading Works published up to 1901 Alexandre, Histoire de la peinture militaire en France (Paris, 1891) Laurens, Notice sur Meissonier (Paris, 1892) Gréard, Meissonier (Paris and London, 1897) T. G. Dumas, Maîtres modernes (Paris, 1884) Ch. Formentin, Meissonier, sa vie—son œuvre (Paris, 1901) J. W. Mollett, Illustrated Biographies of Modern Artists: Meissonier (London, 1882) Contemporary scholarship Marc Gotlieb, The plight of emulation: Ernest Meissonier and French salon painting (Princeton University Press, 1996) , Patricia Mainardi, The end of the Salon: art and the state in the early Third Republic (Cambridge; New