“The Duke challenged P—— to a duel in secret, his rank preventing him from making the affair a public one. The duel was never fought, however, for P—— left that night for his home near Arcachon, and a few months later I heard he had been killed in a coaching accident near Tours.
“The Vicomte de Larsan was the most persistent suitor, after P——, and he was only a boy. I could not bear the sight of him, with his rouged cheeks, his scented hands, his powdered hair and his shirts covered with expensive lace. He used to wait outside the house for hours until I came out, and would make fervent declarations of love in the street. I grew to hate him, and I told him so!
“But at that time I hated nearly all men, except the Duc de Morny. That nobleman was my mother’s most faithful protector, and he gave her large sums, which helped to pay for my education and my art lessons. He used to predict a great future for me. Not only did he stand sponsor for me for the Versailles convent but also procured my entrance into the Conservatoire.
“Many people in those days thought that I was the Duke’s natural daughter, and the legend has persisted. It was not true, though, for when I was born my mother was in exceedingly humble circumstances, and she did not meet the Duke—a meeting which changed her fortunes—until several years later.”
CHAPTER VII
The first press notice that Sarah Bernhardt ever received was published in the Mercure de Paris in October 1860, when she was sixteen years old. Curiously enough it did not concern her histrionic talent—then just beginning to develop—but related to a painting entitled “Winter in the Champs Elysées,” with which Sarah had won the first prize at the Colombier Art School in the Rue de Vaugirard.
Sarah gave me the clipping to copy—it was among her most prized possessions—and, translated, it reads as follows:
“Among the remarkable candidates for admission to the Beaux Arts should be mentioned a young Parisienne of sixteen years, named Mademoiselle Sarah Bernhardt, who is a pupil at Mlle. Gaucher’s class in the Colombier School. Mlle. Bernhardt exhibits an extraordinary talent for one so young and her picture “Winter in the Champs Elysées,” with which she has won the first prize for her class, is distinguished for its technical perfection. Rarely have we had the pleasure of welcoming into the Beaux Arts a young artist of similar promise, and there can be no doubt that very soon Mlle. Bernhardt will be classed as one of our greatest painters and thus win glory for herself and her country.”
The painting in question was bought by an American friend of Sarah’s some forty years later. I do not know how much was paid, but other early paintings of hers, which have sold privately during the past twenty years, have brought very large prices indeed.