Memoirs
of
Madame Vigée Lebrun
Uniform with this volume:
MEMOIRS OF COUNTESS POTOCKA
Illustrated. Translated by Lionel Strachey
MEMOIRS OF A CONTEMPORARY
Illustrated. Translated by Lionel Strachey
MME. VIGÉE LEBRUN AND HER DAUGHTER.
Memoirs
of
Madame Vigée Lebrun
Translated by
Lionel Strachey
With Numerous Reproductions of
Paintings by the Authoress
London
Grant Richards
1904
Copyright, 1903, by
Doubleday, Page & Company
Printed by Manhattan Press
New York. N. Y., U. S. A.
PREFATORY NOTE
Madame Lebrun brought out her Memoirs at the suggestion of her friend, the Princess Dolgoruki, in 1835. The authoress was born in 1756, at Paris, where she died in 1842. She was the daughter of Louis Vigée, an obscure portrait painter. Her baptismal name was Marie Louise Elisabeth. In 1776 Mademoiselle Vigée was married to Jean Baptiste Pierre Lebrun, a notable picture dealer and critic, known also to his contemporaries as an inveterate gambler.
This book forms a rendering of Madame Carette's edition of the Lebrun Memoirs, slightly abridged for the sake of uniformity with the "Memoirs of the Countess Potocka" and the "Memoirs of a Contemporary," issuing from the same hands as the present volume.
CONTENTS
Chapter I. Youth. PAGE
Precocious Talents Manifested — Mlle. Vigée's Father and Mother — Death of Her Father — A Friend of Her Girlhood — Her Mother Remarries — Mlle. Vigée's First Portrait of Note (Count Schouvaloff) — Acquaintance with Mme. Geoffrin — The Authoress's Puritanical Bringing-up — Male Sitters Attempt Flirtation — Public Resorts of Paris Before the Revolution [3]
Chapter II. Up the Ladder of Fame.
Tedious Sojourn in the Country — Social Amenities in Paris — Mlle. Vigée Becomes Mme. Lebrun — Prognostications of Unhappy Wedlock — On the Ladder of Fame — Singularities of Oriental Taste — Marie Antoinette as a Model — Painting the Royal Family — How Louis XVIII. Sang — The Princess de Lamballe [16]
Chapter III. Work and Pleasure.
Impressions of Flanders — The Authoress's Election to the French Royal Academy of Painting — Her Devotion to Work — Social Pleasures — A Tale of an Artist's Extravagance — Calonne and Calumny — M. Lebrun Allows His Wife Naught Per Cent. of Her Earnings — A Dramatic Constellation — The Incomparable Mme. Dugazon [32]
Chapter IV. Exile.
A Gallic Maecenas — Anecdote Concerning Beaumarchais — The Duke de Nivernais — Mme. Du Barry Sketched in Words — And Painted in Oils — Rumblings of the Revolution — Mme. Lebrun's Fearsome Journey to Italy — Renewed Artistic Activity at Rome — Easter Sunday at St. Peter's — Fascination of the Eternal City — Vanities and Violences of Its People [47]
Chapter V. Neapolitan Days.
Naples — A Sleepy Ambassadress — The Remarkable Life of Lady Hamilton — Being the Story of a Frivolous Flirt Fond of Beer — More Royal Models — Excursions to Posilippo — Mlle. Lebrun Writes a Novel at the Age of Nine — The Queen of Naples Sits to the Authoress — The Wedding of the Doge of Venice with the Sea [63]
Chapter VI. Turin and Vienna.
A Queen Who Refused to Be Painted — A Four-Course Dinner of Frogs, Frogs, Frogs and Frogs — Villeggiatura — French Refugees at Turin — Their Heartrending Plight — Vienna — News of the "Awful Murder" of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette — Barefoot Princess Lichtenstein — Inducements to Visit Russia — Journey Thither via Dresden — The Sistine Madonna [74]
Chapter VII. Saint Petersburg.
Arrival at St. Petersburg — The Beautiful Grandduchess Elisabeth — Catherine II. Receives Mme. Lebrun — And Is Most Gracious — Petty Court Intrigues — A Visit to Count Strogonoff — Hospitality of the Russians — An Ambassador as Gardener — Princess Dolgoruki and Her Hideous Admirer — The Extravagances of Potemkin — His End [83]
Chapter VIII. Life in Russia.
Painting Russian Royalties — Festivities at Court — The Pangs of Waiting for Dinner — "To Keep Warm, Spend the Winter in Russia" — The Hardiness of Its Common People — Who Are Well Suited with Serfdom — And Remarkably Honest — The Quaint Ceremonial of Blessing the Neva — Various Social Customs [96]
Surroundings of St. Petersburg — Patriarchal Unconventionalities — An Artillery Repast — The Greatness of the Second Catherine — Who Lit Her Own Fire and Made Her Own Coffee — And Was Sworn at by a Chimney Sweeper — Other Domestic Amenities in the Career of an Empress — The Suit of Gustavus IV. — Catherine's Death — Humiliating Funeral Incidents [109]
Chapter X. The Emperor Paul.
Accession of the Emperor Paul — His Arbitrary Rule — His Civility to the Authoress — A Man Who Did Not Know the Emperor's Address — Paul's Kindness to Foreigners — His Fear of Assassination — His Personal Appearance — The Empress Maria — Vagaries of a Half-Mad Emperor — A Noble Prelate [119]
Chapter XI. Family Affairs.
Poniatowski, Last King of Poland — His Amiable Character — The Authoress's Faculty of Presaging Death — Poniatowski the Nephew — Mme. Lebrun Received as a Member of the St. Petersburg Academy — Her Daughter's Untoward Marriage — Resulting in Estrangement Between Mother and Child [131]
Chapter XII. Moscow.
Journey to Moscow — A Bad Smell and Its Origin — First Impression of Moscow — Another Impression, Oral and Unpleasing — The Kremlin — Steam-and-Snow Bathing — Society — Luxurious Prince Kurakin — An Impossible Duologue — Examples of Russian Cleverness — Determination to Return to France [142]
Chapter XIII. Good-by to Russia.
Departure from Moscow — News of the Death of Paul — Particulars of His Assassination — Et tu Brute? — Paul's Presentiments of Peril — His Successor Not an Accomplice in the Crime — Alexander I. a Popular Monarch — An Order from an Imperial Customer and Model — Farewells to Friends — Among Them Czar and Czarina [154]
Chapter XIV. Homeward Bound.
First Station, Narva — The Cataract — Riga — Hardships of Travel a Hundred Years Ago — Obdurate Custom-House Officials — A Summons to Potsdam — The Loveliest and Sweetest of Queens — Her Ugly Children — An Ambitious Cook — The Journey Continued — "Remember Your Jewel-Case" — Modelling in Dirt for a Pastime — Likewise Sewing — Home Again [164]
Chapter XV. Old Friends and New.
Paris After the Revolution — Renewing Old Acquaintances and Forming New Ties — Rival Beauties: Mme. Récamier and Mme. Tallien — Mme. Campan — An Englishwoman's Slip of the Tongue — Some Distinguished Foreigners [173]
Chapter XVI. Unmerry England.
London — Its Historic Piles — And Dull Sundays — And Taciturn People — Pictures by Sir Joshua Reynolds — His Modesty — How to Dry Pictures in a Damp Climate — The Artistic View of a Certain Popular Beauty — The Prince of Wales — His Alleged Attentions to Mme. Lebrun — The Authoress Lectures an Unfriendly Critic — News of One of Napoleon's "Atrocious Crimes" [182]
Chapter XVII. Persons and Places in Britain.
English Palaces — And Scenery — Suburban Princes — Richmond Terrace — An Eccentric Margravine — The Charm of the Isle of Wight — The Britons a Stolid Nation — Their Indifference to Rain [192]
Chapter XVIII. Bonapartes and Bourbons.
Back in Paris — The Devotion of Mme. Grassini — Capricious, Exacting Mme. Murat — Aspects of Christian Warfare — "Kill All Those People!" — Louis XVIII. Enters the Capital — The Barrenness of Napoleon's Victories — His Successor's Attainments — Bourbon Characteristics — The Authoress Loses Her Husband, Daughter and Brother — Conclusion [200]