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his lyre. In all my life I never saw such | due; therefore we fully believe that Maastonishment, such stupefaction, in two dame Lebrun painted all her portraits and faces, as in those of M. de Vaudreuil and pictures herself, without the assistance of his companion. They were surprised and delighted to such a degree that they remained standing a very long time, before they could consent to take the places which

we had reserved for them.

"Besides the two dishes which I have already mentioned, we had a cake made with honey and currants in it, and two dishes of vegetables. We drank indeed that evening a bottle of old Cyprus wine, which had been made a present to methis was all the excess in which we indulged. We, nevertheless, continued a very long time at table, where Lebrun recited to us several odes of Anacreon, which he had translated, and I think I never spent a more amusing evening. Messrs. de Boutin and de Vaudreuil were so delighted that they talked of it next day to all their acquaintance. Some ladies of the court applied to me for a second representation of this pleasantry. I refused for various reasons, and several of them were offended at my refusal. A report was soon circulated that this supper had cost me twenty thousand francs. The king spoke of it with some spleen to the Marquis de Cubières, who had luckily been of the party, and who convinced his majesty of the sil liness of such an assertion. Nevertheless, that which was rated at Versailles at the moderate sum of twenty thousand francs, was raised at Rome to forty thousand, and at Vienna, the Baroness de Strogonoff informed me that I had spent sixty thousand francs on my Greek supper.You know that at Petersburgh the sum was finally fixed at eighty thousand, and the truth is, that this supper cost me but fifteen francs."

man. But a great deal of scandal and calumny immediately preceded the French revolution; there was a feeling of irritation, a spirit of party, that had not yet found vent in public occurrences, and we have heard of many splenetic and spiteful sayings and doings at this period. Affairs, however, soon assumed a more serious appearance, and Madame Lebrun was too great a favorite at court too much in the intimate friendship of all that was great and noble, to escape suspicion, and she was one of the first who was abused by the mob. Disgusted and alarmed, she seriously thought of travelling, but her friends, who could not be persuaded that any serious crisis was to be apprehended, still made her linger.

The symptoms, however, increased, and when she saw the beautiful and celebrated Pamela, tearing up and down the streets on horseback, followed by two servants, in the Orleans livery in the midst of the most revolting hordes of vagabonds and ruffians, who loudly cried, "There is our Queen!" she naturally thought that all was subverted; and, half-dead with alarm and apprehension, in consequence of reiterated threats against her person, she decided on performing her long intended journey to Rome, and taking her daughter and her daughter's governess along with her. They were disguised as working people, and started in the diligence, as the surest mode of escape. No molestation was offered, and she thought she was unknown, till she was ascending Mount Cenis on foot. Several strangers were following the same route, and one of their postillions came up to her and said, "You ought to have a mule, inadam ; for this way of travelling must be too fa tiguing to a lady like you." "I am only a working person," said Madame Lebrun, "and am used to walking." The postillion laughed, and replied, "You are no working person; and we very well know who you are.". "Who am I then ?" returned Madame Lebrun. very You are Madame Lebrun," concluded the postillion, "who paints to perfection, and we are all very glad to see you so far away from those wicked people." Madame Lebrun never could guess how this man knew her; but it was a proof how far the emissaries of the jacobins extended their influence, and she was thankful at being beyond their reach.

But Madame Lebrun was about to suffer for her celebrity; and, in the first place, she was not exempted from a very common accusation brought against women who do any thing which is remarkable. This remarkable production is sure to be wholly, or partially, ascribed to her husband, a brother, a preceptor, a friend, who has been kind enough to let his labors pass under the name of the lady. Now we may be good natured, nay very gallant, indeed, we feel a considerable degree of complacency, when we think of our conduct and feeling toward really clever women; but we do not give ourselves credit for extending this feel ing so far as to supply our female friends or relations with materials for a brilliant fame. For instance, would any one in his senses write such works as emanate from Great Britain's pride. Mrs. Somerville, and let them be ascribed to her? No! we love fame too much ourselves, and labor too hard for it, to part with it when it is justly our

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It would be difficult to decide which of Madame Lebrun's travels is the most interesting, for her descriptions of people, scenery, monuments of art, solemnities, public festivals, peculiarities of custom, are all

At Rome Madame Lebrun became ac

among

written in the most graphic manner, without was on the point of being realized. At pretension, and with that remarkable simpli- length I found myself on the Ponte Mole. city which seems to have accompanied her I must confess to you in a whisper that it throughout her life. Our friend, to whom appeared to me very small, and the so celebrated Tiber a very muddy stream." we have already alluded, met her in Rome, # and was an eye-witness of the honorable reception there bestowed upon her, and we quainted with Angelica Kauffman, whom cannot do better than follow the course of she found amiable, talented, and learned, but her narrative. It may not be amiss, howe- without the enthusiasm which was so abunver, to remark that, after she had resided in dant in herself. No sooner had she estabItaly for some time, her talent acquired in- lished herself, than sitters crowded to her, creasing strength, her touch became bolder whom were several English; emiand firmer, her coloring became more solid, grants flocked to Rome from Paris, and at and her drawing more perfect; we have every fresh arrival she had some fresh loss seen a portrait painted by her at the period to deplore. She not only visited the enviwe speak of, and were much struck with rons of the city, but found time to sketch the richness and depth of its tone. She them. When speaking of the temple of the seems to have been very open to impression; Sibyl, she says:for those who know her productions better than we do, have remarked a difference in them,to which can only be ascribed the varied circumstances which assailed her in each of the countries in which she resided. Persons of a very lively imagination and great sensibility, without being aware of it, constantly assume the tone of those among whom they reside for some time, however different it may be from that in which they were born. Madame Lebrun passed through Turin, where she received the greatest kindness from the celebrated engraver Porporati; at Parma she was fêted by the Count de Flavigny, the ambassador of Louis XVI. and saw there Corregio's magnificent picture of the Nativity, which was afterwards. taken for a time to Paris, and some other pictures of this great master, on which she makes the folowing just observations:

"I could not see so many divine pictures without believing in the inspiration which the Christian artist derives from his religion; fable, it is true has charming fictions; but to me the poetry of Christianity seems much more beautiful."

"There I heard the sound of waterfalls which lulled me deliciously, for this had nothing harsh like so many others which I detest. To say nothing of the awful sound of thunder, there are other sounds which are to me unbearable, and the form of which I could draw from the impres sion which they made upon me: thus I know round sounds and sharp-pointed sounds; in like manner there are some which have always been agreeable to me; the sound of the waves of the sea, for example, is soothing, and disposes one to pleasing reverie."

After eight months' sojourn in Rome, Madame Lebrun went to Naples, where she as usual, moved in the best society. We cannot refrain from citing the following passage, which we think will be sure to meet with the sympathy of our readers, who, like ourselves, have the same unconquerable desire to speak of personal defects before those afflicted with them, and the involuntary gratification of which has caused us so much pain

"This neighborhood at Naples was extremely agreeable to me, and I spent most of my evenings at the Russian ambassador's. The count and his lady frequently played a game at cards with the Abbé Bertrand, who was then the consul of France at Naples. The abbé was hunchbacked in the full extent of the term, and I know not by what fatality it happened that as soon as I was seated by him at the card-table the air of Les Bossus always came into my head. I had the utmost dif

Passing through Modena, she arrived at Bologna, where the French were forbidden to stay for more than one night, but where she received an especial permission from the pope to remain as long as she pleased; a favor of which she availed herself in order to feast upon treasures of art, and to be received into the Academy of that place. From Florence she could hardly tear herself, but at length she arrived in Rome, and the following were her first impressions:ficulty to divert my thoughts from it. At

"You know that, while yet at some dis tance from Rome, you can see the dome of St. Peter's. It is impossible to tell you what delight I felt when I first perceived it. What I had so long wished in vain

length, one evening, my pre-occupation was such, that I began humming that unfortunate air quite loud. I stopped short immediately, and the abbé, turning towards me, said in the kindest tone: 'Go on, go on, that does not offend me in the least.' I cannot conceive how such a

thing could have happened to me; it is one of these movements that are inexplicable."

At Naples Madame Lebrun met with Sir William Hamilton, and Emma Hart, who was afterwards his wife; of her she thus speaks :

"I had given the first sitting, when Sir William Hamilton, the English ambassador at Naples, called upon me to ask as a favour to let my first portrait be that of a superb woman whom he introduced to me; this was Mrs. Hart, his mistress, who very soon became Lady Hamilton, and whose beauty has rendered her celebrated. Agreeably to the promises made to my neighbours, I would not begin this portrait till that of the Countess Scawronski should be pretty forward. I painted at the same time a fresh portrait of Lord Bristol, whom I found again at Naples, and who might be said to pass his life upon Vesuvius, for he ascended the mountain every day. Sir William Hamilton had this portrait painted for himself, but it should be observed that he very frequently sold his pictures again when he could do so at a profit; hence M. de Talleyrand, the eldest son of our ambassador at Naples, hearing some one say one day that Sir William Hamilton patronized the arts, replied, 'Say rather that the arts patronize him. The fact is, that after bar gaining a very long time about the portrait of his mistress, he got me to paint it for one hundred louis, and that he sold it in London for three hundred guineas."

Madame Lebrun afterwards painted another portrait of Lady Hamilton, as a Sibyl, which she kept in her possession, and which was one of her best pictures. Another of her most celebrated works was the portrait of the great composer Paësiello, who was then the delight of Italy.

a frame, and hung it up in one of my rooms. One morning, while dressing, I was informed that seven or eight pupils of painters had called to pay me a visit. They were shown into the room in which I had placed my Sibyl, and in a few minutes I went to receive them there. After they had expressed the strong desire they had felt to make my acquaintance, they of my works. Here,' I replied, 'is a picsaid that they should be happy to see some ture that I have just finished,' pointing to the Sibyl. All of them testified at first a surprize much more flattering than any words could have been; several then declared that they thought this picture was by one of the masters of their school, and one of them threw himself at my feet with tears in his eyes. I was the more touched, the more pleased, with this test, as my Sibyl has always been one of my favorite works. The reader, in perusing this narrative, may perhaps accuse me of vanity; I beseech him to consider that an artist labours a whole life to enjoy two or three such moments as that which I am speaking of."

We should be the last to accuse an artist of conceit on such an occasion; he must know in a great measure the value of his own works, if he be a man of real merit, and we have often thought of the noble simplicity with which Sir Thomas Lawrence used to pass his opinion on his own works, and receive praises from others; and there is frequently a great deal of hypocricy in denying merits which we cannot fail to know that we possess.

At Venice, Madame Lebrun met the Baron Dénon, whose character and talents she seems to have appreciated, and from thence proceeded to Turin; but her progress was there stopped by the fugitives from France; the streets were filled with them, and they were destitute of money, clothes, or bread; After again spending some time at Rome, life was all they could save; some had been Madame Lebrun determined to return to prematurely confined on the way, and others France, for accounts had been much more were at the point of death from fatigue and favorable concerning the state of the country, suffering. The King of Sardinia gave orand she felt an earnest desire to see those ders for their relief, but the city could scarcewho were dear to her, and still survived. Iny hold them. M. de Rivière, the brother of her way through Parma we find the following anecdote respecting the Sibyl, the conclusion of which has particularly pleased

us:

"In the same week I experienced in the same city a gratification not less lively. I had with me the picture of the Sibyl which I had painted at Naples, after Lady Hamilton, intending to carry it to France, whither I reckoned upon returning very shortly. As this picture was very recently painted, on my arrival at Parma, that it might not turn yellow, I put it one day in

Madame Lebrun's sister-in-law, whom she expected to meet her, at length arrived, but, after witnessing the massacre of the priests at Beauvoisin, he had been so ill as to be obliged to stop upon the road: the news he brought proved that there was no safety in France for Madame Lebrun, and she then changed her route and went to Vienna, to which city she had been frequently invited; that city, of which it is said, that it contains three causes of death, "the wind, the dust, and the walz." Wherever she went, she met her fugitive countrymen; wherever she

appeared, she received the same kindness us all the famous personages of whom we

and distinction; and after remaining two years and a half in Vienna, painting fiftyfive portraits in oil and pastil, and making new friends, reviving old friendships, and lamenting over those that were gone for ever, she in 1795 proceeded to St. Petersburg.

She passed six years in Russia, and was received by the three sovereigns whom she saw upon the throne during that period, with all that enthusiasm which they ever profess for the arts and mental acquirements. She was presented to the Empress Catherine by Prince Esterhazy, and thus describes her interview:

with the Autocrat of all the Russias. M.

have read or heard, as playing their part in Russia at that time-their outward appearance and manner, their conversation, their histories are all given to us with the same vivacity which marks all hitherto described; and in fact we should be puzzled which to choose. She witnessed the sensations created by the death of Catherine, the accession and murder of Paul, and the accession of Alexander; it was a redeeming feature in Paul to have loved and protected the arts as generously as his mother had done. Her account of Stanislas Augustus Poniatowsky is highly interesting; she describes him as good-tempered, amiable, and brave, but per haps not quite energetic enough to keep the "I reached the empress's apartment people of Poland in order at that time; he trembling a little, and there I was tête-à-tête was passionately fond of the arts, extremely d'Esterhazy had told me that I must kiss graceful and benevolent, and his suppers her hand, and consequently for this pur- were delightful, somewhat resembling those pose she had taken off one of her gloves, of Paris; his eldest nephew, Joseph Poniawhich ought have reminded me of his in-towski, was a hero in look and conduct-in junction; but I completely forgot it. It is short, "le Bayard Polonias ;" and it will be true that the sight of this so celebrated recollected that he was afterwards drowned woman made such an impression upon in the Elster, on the destruction of the me, that it was impossible for me to think bridge over that river after the battle of Leipof any thing else but contemplating her. I was at first extremely surprised to find zig. her so small; I had fanced her to be a prodigiously large woman, as large as her renown. She was very fat, but she had still a fine face, to which her gray hair, turned up, formed an admirable frame. Genius appeared to be seated upon her broad and very high forehead. Her eyes were soft and fine, her nose perfectly Gre- gave an unwilling consent, and Mademoician, her complexion very ruddy, and her selle Lebrun bestowed her hand on physiognomy extremely animated. She wholly unworthy of her in character, talent, said to me immediately in a tone of voice fortune, or rank. The seeds of discord once full of kindness, but nevertheless some- sown between mother and daughter led to an what harsh, 'I am delighted, madam, to estrangement which was not thoroughly ef receive you here; your reputation has out-faced for some years, and the health of the stripped you. I am very fond of the arts, former having consequently suffered, she and especially of painting. I am not a went to Moscow, of which she gives a most connoisseur, but an amateur.' All that she added during this conversation, which was of considerable length, about the desire she felt that I should like Russia well enough to make a long stay there, bore the character of such great benevolence, that my timidity left me; and by the time I took leave, I had recovered all my assuOnly I could not forgive myself for not having kissed her hand, which was very beautiful and very white; especially as M. d'Esterhazy did not fail to reproach

rance.

me for it."

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Honor, wealth, and enjoyment were pour. ed upon Madame Lebrun, but all were embittered by the marriage of that daughter whom she had so much loved and cherished. For some time she tried to prevent this union but, finding her efforts useless, she at length

one

comfortless account, and returned to St. Pe-
tersburg in time to witness the accession of
Alexander, whom she entirely exculpates
from being in the least accessary to the
death of his father. This kind disposition
of this emperor towards her, the friendship
of his court, and the high consideration
which she enjoyed, seemed to render her
prospects more brilliant than ever; but the
conduct of her daughter had sunk too deep-
ly into her heart to be easily forgotten, and
in 1801 she returned to France by way of
Prussia. The queen of this country fêted
and caressed her, but would not detain her
for any length of time; her brother and re-
lations pressed her to return, her name had
been erased from the list of emigrants, and,
after twelve years' absence, she longed to
behold her native city.

6

could not do it so well."

With Mrs. Siddons she was wholly delighted; she gave several soirées at her house in Maddox Street, at one of which Mrs. Billington and Grassini sung together, Viotti played the violin, and the Prince of Wales, afterwards George IV., said to her, Je voltige dans toutes les soirées, ici je vonshire's she met Sir Francis Burdett, and reste." In a party at the Duchess of Dethus speaks of him:

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On arriving in Paris, Madame Lebrun ought to be a good one, for Madame Lesaw a new world, which she places before brun was paid eighty thousand francs for us in her usual manner. She found a few it. Why,' replied Reynolds, 'if one hunrelics of former times, mingled with those dred thousand were to be given to me, I whose names, connexions, and fortunes, were wholly strange to her; she saw and appreciated M. Gérard, and thought of the fascinating Madame Recamier as every one else did; but she was still restless, and nothing seems at that moment to have been able to satisfy her heart. She therefore again resolved to travel, and, never having been in England, she started in 1802, and arrived in our great city without knowing a word of our language. She had engaged an English maid, who spoke French, but soon discharged her because "she did nothing all day but eat bread and butter." The crowd assembled on the pier at Dover alarmed her exceedingly, and she left that place immediately, when she was assailed by the new fear of robbers; however, putting her diamonds into her stockings, she proceeded in a chaise to Brunet's Hotel, and afterwards took lodgings; she finally settled herself in Maddox Street, where she established her atelier. She was shocked at the boxeurs in the streets, distressed by the climate, ennuyée with our Sundays, and stupified at our routs. On our public walks she makes the following observations:

"The public walks in London are not more gay; the women walk together on one side all dressed in white; their sience, their perfect calmness, would make you fancy them to be walking ghosts; the men keep themselves apart from them, and observe the same serious silence. I have sometimes observed couples, arm in arm; when I happened to be going the same way as the two persons, I amused myself in watching whether they would say a word to one another; and I never found them break the silence."

Of Reynolds she says:

"At a moment when I was seated by the duchess, she directed my attention to a man placed at a great distance from, but opposite to, us, and said, 'Has he not a remarkably intelligent and distinguished look? In fact, marked features and a high forehead stripped of hair gave him Sir Francis Burdett, in whose election she a very expressive physiognomy. It was warmly interested herself, and who was actually returned. I have not forgotten the fright caused me by his triumph, when, chancing to be in the street, I saw a coach pass with a great number of persons of the lower class, some inside and others on the top, and all shouting, with all their might, Burdett for ever! Most of these men were quite drunk, and they were throwing stones at the windows... I than a revolution had begun in England. was terrified, conceiving that nothing less I hurried home, trembling all over, and was very glad when Prince Bariatinski, who had long resided in London, came to cheer me. He told me that such scenes were quite common at the time of an important election, and that they would all be over on the following day."

When the peace of Amiens was broken, all the French then residing in England were ordered to quit the kingdom, but the Prince of Wales requested his father to allow Madame Lebrun to remain, and himself carried the royal permission, couched in these terms: "That she was at liberty to travel throughout the kingdom, to stay where she pleased, and moreover, that she should be protected at all the sea-ports where she should be pleased to sojourn." Of our celebrated prince she observes:

"I saw in London many pictures by the famous Reynolds; they are of an excellent colour, which reminds one of that of Titian, but in general unfinished, with the exception of the heads. I admired, however, his Child Samuel, which delighted me both in regard to finish and colour. Reynolds was as modest as he was clever. When my portrait of M. Calonne arrived at the Custom House, having been informed of the circumstance, he went to see it, "The Prince of Wales was then about and persons who were present gave me forty, but he looked older, because he had the following account of what passed. already grown too corpulent. Tall and When the case was opened, he looked a well made, he had a handsome face; all long time at the picture and praised it; on his features were noble and regular. He which one of those newsmongers, who wore a wig arranged with great art, the take delight in repeating the silly inven-hair of which was parted in front like that tions of calumny, said that this portrait of the Apollo, which became him wonder

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