After she returned home she began to paint in earnest. Her father had many artist friends, and when they came to the house she loved to sit quietly in a corner and listen to their talk about great pictures and artists. It was not very long before she was painting pictures which brought her great praise and honor. About this time her father died, and later on her mother married again. The stepfather was a rich man, but he was very stingy, and insisted upon her giving him all the money she earned. By this time her fame had spread over the country, and people came from far and near to have her paint their portraits.
She married a man who was a picture dealer and who, although she had not known it, was a reckless gambler. She was obliged to give him most of the money she earned to pay his debts. After a time she left him, taking her lovely little daughter with her. She had a studio of her own where she could work, and entertain her friends, and there she lived and worked very happily with her little daughter.
One evening Madame Lebrun went to the theater and when the curtain went up, there on a large easel on the stage was one of her paintings. When the people saw it they all stood up and waved and cheered while they looked toward the artist, who was seated in a box. Madame Lebrun was so surprised she almost forgot to smile and bow to them.
The king and queen sent for her to come and paint their portraits. Day after day the royal carriage would come to take her to the palace to paint the queen, Marie Antoinette, and her children. Those were happy days for her.
A very short time after this picture was painted the dreadful French Revolution broke out. The poor people of France, who had been treated very badly by the rich, rebelled and tried to kill or drive away all the rich people. Madame Lebrun had always been friends with the rich people, so it was not safe for her to stay in Paris, either.
One evening she dressed her little daughter in a ragged dress and bonnet to make her look like a poor peasant child. She herself wore an old dress, with a handkerchief over her head to hide her face like a veil. They slipped quietly out of the house and into an omnibus that was waiting for them and drove as quickly as possible through the crowded streets, out of the city. No one recognized them, and they went to Italy, where they traveled about the country for many years. Mother and daughter were very popular and were entertained royally wherever they went. But Madame Lebrun never laid aside her painting. Even when she was eighty years old she painted a beautiful portrait of her little niece, who must have reminded her of the little daughter in this picture.
Questions about the artist. What did Madame Lebrun do when she was a little girl? Who was her teacher? Of whom did she draw a picture to surprise her father? What did he say of it? What did this make her do? Why were her notebooks treasured at the convent? Tell about her stepfather. Tell what happened at the theater. What king and queen sent for her to paint their portraits? Why did she and her daughter leave Paris? How did they escape?
AN OLD MONARCH
(Click on illustration for larger view.)