MADAME TUSSAUD.
Madame Tussaud’s famous wax-work collection was first opened in Paris about 1770, by M. Courcius, her uncle. Though consisting then chiefly of busts, with a few full-length figures, it attracted much attention as a novelty; and Louis XVI. was wont to amuse himself by placing living figures, costumed, among the wax ones. In 1802 Madame Tussaud opened her exhibition in London; afterward visiting all the large towns in Great Britain. Her rooms were large and splendidly decorated, and her figures were magnificently dressed—some in their own royal robes, with crowns, stars, orders, and regal finery. Among the historical groups is one of Henry VIII. and his family. The exhibition is still kept up in the largest saloon in Europe, more than forty persons being kept constantly employed in the care of it.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
Close of the golden Age of Art in France.—Corruption of Manners.—Influence of female Genius.—Reign of Louis XVI.—Female Energy in the Revolution.—Charlotte Corday.—Greater Number of female Artists in Germany.—Reasons why.—French Women devoted to Engraving.—Stamp-cutters.—A Sculptress enamored.—A few Paintresses.—The Number increasing.—Influence of the great French Masters.—Sèvres-painting.—Genre-painting.—Disciples of Greuze.—Portrait-painting in vogue.—Caroline Sattler.—Flower-painters, etc.—Engravers.—Two eminent Paintresses.—Adelaide Vincent.—Marriage.—Portraits and other Works.—The Revolution.—Elizabeth Le Brun.—Talent for Painting.—Her Father’s Delight.—Instruction.—Friendship with Vernet.—Poverty and Labor.—Avaricious Step-father.—Her Earnings squandered.—Success and Temptation.—Acquaintance with Le Brun.—Maternal Counsels to Marriage.—Secret Marriage.—Warnings too late.—The Mask falls.—Luxury for the Husband, Labor and Privation for the Wife.—Success and Scandal.—French Society.—Friendship with Marie Antoinette.—La Harpe’s Poem.—Evening Receptions.—Splendid Entertainments.—Scarcity of Seats.—Petits Soupers.—The Grecian Banquet.—Reports concerning it.—Departure from France.—Triumphal Progress.—Reception in Bologna.—In Rome.—In Naples.—In Florence.—Madame Le Brun’s Portrait.—Goethe’s Remarks.—New Honors.—Reception at Vienna.—An old Friend in Berlin.—Residence in Russia.—Return to France.—Loyalty.—Her Pictures.—Death of her Husband and Daughter.—Advanced Age.—Autobiography.—An emblematic Life.
The golden age of French literature and art came to a close with the life of Louis XIV. A shadow only of that fortunate epoch lingered during the years succeeding, and the general corruption of manners soon obliterated even that. But in the reign of Louis XV. were glimpses of a better state of things, and the influence of female genius and merit was apparent, as a long list of names in literature can testify. Vice held sway, however, in the latter years of this monarch, and hypocrisy became the only homage paid by the court to virtue.
The sceptre passed into the hands of Louis XVI., a feeble prince, whose virtues were those of the man, not the sovereign. When the throne was shattered, and revolution broke out, the women of France regained their energy. They were heroines under the sway of the Decemvirs. What self-sacrifice, for example, can outshine that of Charlotte Corday—the greater than Brutus? And what was begun by a woman, a woman completed: Madame Cabarrus shared in the glory of those great events! Those days had writers, too, whom posterity has crowned with the garland woven by their contemporaries.
In comparing woman’s progress and her cultivation of art in France with those of other nations, and especially the German, we may notice important differences. The number of female artists was far greater in Germany, perhaps because many cities in that land were central points, affording employment to labor, and appreciation to those who devoted themselves to the profession; whereas in France Paris alone was the great rendezvous. There were, also, several branches of art cultivated in Germany which in France were little practiced by women, such as landscape-painting, for instance. The French women devoted themselves much more to engraving than in Germany; in fact, engravers formed the majority of female artists in France, where, moreover, female effort was more in a strictly business line than in any other country. With this professional devotion among the women engravers in France, it follows that there were few amateurs; while, on the other hand, those in Germany and England who handled the implements of art as dilettanti were very numerous.
Glancing over the prominent Frenchwomen who enjoyed a reputation among their contemporaries during the eighteenth century, we may notice the stamp-cutters Marie Anne de St. Urbin and Elise Lesueur, with the sculptress Mademoiselle Collot, who afterward married Falconnet, and assisted him in the completion of the statue of Peter the Great. She was said to be enamored of the czar, and to have executed the finest bust of him extant. The female painters of this period are but little known. In the early part of the century, Lucrece Catherine de la Ronde and Elizabeth Gauthier engraved after Edelinck and Langlais. Marie Catherine Herault accompanied her husband, the painter Silvestre, to Dresden; and Geneviéve Blanchot, and the Dames Godefroy and Davin, among others less noted, complete the list during the first half of the century.
The number of devotees to art, however, was rapidly increasing, as the ateliers of Regnault, David, and Redouté could bear witness, when they became central points of reunion for female enterprise and study.
The influence of those celebrated men, whose fair scholars have exercised their talents in the nineteenth century, brought more into vogue the tender and emotional kind of genre-painting, shown by Greuze and Fragonard to be so well adapted to the taste and the feeling of woman. Marguerite Gérard, the sister-in-law and pupil of Fragonard, in this manner painted scenes of domestic life and family groups with much grace and repose. A Madame Gérard has been mentioned as a dilettante, who possessed a large fortune, and had a hotel furnished with facilities for painting Sèvres. Her splendid cupboards of polished mahogany were gilded and bronzed, and their contents looked like a rich collection for the gratification of taste rather than for sale. She purchased some pieces for sixty and eighty louis-d’ors. A pair of vases, not very large, painted with sacred subjects, sold for twenty-six thousand livres.
The genre style was practiced by Mademoiselle Duquesnoy and Madame Gois. Greuze’s manner was also imitated by his wife, Anna Gabrielle, with Marie Geneviéve Brossard de Beaulieu, who had the honor of membership in the Academies of Paris and Rome.
Other disciples of this school entered into their profession after the commencement of the nineteenth century; and they, with the pupils of Regnault, Redouté, and David, belong to a later period than that under discussion.
Portrait-painting was more in vogue than any other kind, and that almost altogether in oil; while miniature-painting, so much in favor among the women of Germany, was in France much less practiced. Among those who gained some celebrity, Caroline Sattler deserves mention. She studied in Paris, and was not only received as a member of the Academy in that city, but was honored with the title of Professor. Some time afterward she gave her hand to a merchant named Tridon, and went to live in Dresden.
Landscape-painting was practiced by very few women. In flower-painting Madeleine Françoise Basseporte was noted. She was born in 1701, received her instruction from Aubriet, and in 1743 succeeded him in his official appointment in the Jardin des Plantes. She painted a series of pieces for the collection of the Duc Gaston d’Orleans, which are still exhibited as masterworks of art.
Madame Kugler, the wife of Von Weyler, painted the portraits of distinguished persons in ivory, and had fine pieces, in enamel and pastel, in the exhibition in 1789. She was employed by the government, and worked after her husband’s plans. For twelve years she was distinguished for her labors.
Mesdames Charpentier, Surigny, Capet, Bruyère, Michaud, Davin, Mirnaux, Anzon, and Benoit—who painted the emperor—were also well known as artists.
Susanna Silvestre came of a French family of painters. She copied heads and portraits after Vandyck.
As to the class of women, already noticed, who embraced the profession of engravers, they were almost innumerable; yet it is difficult to select any who merit special attention. One of the number—Marguerite Leconte—about the middle of the century was a member of Art-academies in Rome, Florence, and Bologna, and enjoyed a position of high distinction. Geneviéve Naugis, born in Paris in 1746, worked before she became the wife of Regnault. She copied plants from nature, and engraved in copper; she also copied history-pieces after different masters.
Fanny Vernet engraved the pictures painted by her husband, Charles Vernet; and, in her son Horace, gave to French art one of its greatest ornaments.
Elizabeth Clara Tardieu was the wife of an eminent French engraver, and was accustomed to practice the art herself with success.
Mary Magdalen Hortemels, the daughter of a French engraver, and the wife of Cochin, was a noted engraver. She executed with the point and finished with the graver, in a light and pleasing style. Several of the plates for Monicart’s treatise on the pictures, statues, etc., at Versailles were done by her.
Marie Rosalie Bertaud and Louise Adelaide Boizot were excellent engravers.
Anne Philibert Coulet was an ingenious engraver of landscapes and marine views; she wrought in a delicate and pleasing style.
We will now throw back a look upon two female painters, who won for themselves a nearly equal renown, and who are admirably adapted—each in her own personal history, and the view of her early efforts—to be representatives of the condition and characteristics of French art at that period; and, withal, of the prevalent state of society. These women are Adelaide Vincent and Louise Elise Le Brun.