DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0041
HER STEP-FATHER
7
money by their exercise, for her father had left his family very poorly
off. Already she was paid quite good prices for portraits, and could help
her mother by providing for the needs of her brother Etienne. She could
not, however, keep up the home in the Rue de Clery, whither they had
some time ago removed, and, in these circumstances, Madame Vigee, after
a brief widowhood, decided to accept an offer of marriage from a prosperous
jeweller, considerably younger than herself. Some one wrote the name
of this man very badly, and so it has happened that he is variously called
Le Sevre, Le Levre, and Le Fevre, in printed books. His step-daughter
herself either forgot, in her old age, what his name really was, or found it
unmentionable, calling him by such titles as “ my villainous stepfather,”
or simply “ that man.” Le Fevre seems to have been the real name.
Elisabeth went to live with the newly-wedded pair in the Rue Saint
Honore, close to the Palais-Royal. From the first she detested her step-
father, who was miserly and generally disagreeable, and who specially
disgusted her by wearing her father’s old clothes, not even going to the
expense of having them altered to suit his very different figure. He took
all the girl’s earnings, to the indignation of her friends. Vernet, for
instance, was intensely angry, and advised her to pay a stipulated sum for
her board and lodging, and to keep the rest of her money for herself. She
feared, however, that “ with such a Harpagon ” as Le Fevre, her mother
would have paid in unhappiness for any such change, and so nothing was
done to carry out Vernet’s wish. Madame Le Fevre was not allowed much
freedom, her suspicious husband being jealous of her good looks. He
usually objected to the mother and daughter going out together, unless
he was with them, so that they often missed their airings to the Tuileries,
the Luxembourg, or the Palais-Royal.
But the young and charming step-daughter was not imprisoned under
the roof-tree of the money-grubbing step-father. She received many
invitations to dinner—then served at what is “tea-time” nowadays-
and met many people who were useful in describing her attractions and
talents elsewhere. The first time she dined “ in town,” as she says, was
with Le Moine, the sculptor, and it was in his house, where two daughters
“ did the honours,” that she met Le Kain, the tragedian, who frightened
her by his gloomy air and his notorious ugliness. “ He did not talk, but
he made an enormous dinner.” Gretry, the composer whose portrait she
was afterwards to paint, and Latour, the pastellist, often dined at Le
Moine’s, and there was plenty of fun and of music after dinner, and some-
7
money by their exercise, for her father had left his family very poorly
off. Already she was paid quite good prices for portraits, and could help
her mother by providing for the needs of her brother Etienne. She could
not, however, keep up the home in the Rue de Clery, whither they had
some time ago removed, and, in these circumstances, Madame Vigee, after
a brief widowhood, decided to accept an offer of marriage from a prosperous
jeweller, considerably younger than herself. Some one wrote the name
of this man very badly, and so it has happened that he is variously called
Le Sevre, Le Levre, and Le Fevre, in printed books. His step-daughter
herself either forgot, in her old age, what his name really was, or found it
unmentionable, calling him by such titles as “ my villainous stepfather,”
or simply “ that man.” Le Fevre seems to have been the real name.
Elisabeth went to live with the newly-wedded pair in the Rue Saint
Honore, close to the Palais-Royal. From the first she detested her step-
father, who was miserly and generally disagreeable, and who specially
disgusted her by wearing her father’s old clothes, not even going to the
expense of having them altered to suit his very different figure. He took
all the girl’s earnings, to the indignation of her friends. Vernet, for
instance, was intensely angry, and advised her to pay a stipulated sum for
her board and lodging, and to keep the rest of her money for herself. She
feared, however, that “ with such a Harpagon ” as Le Fevre, her mother
would have paid in unhappiness for any such change, and so nothing was
done to carry out Vernet’s wish. Madame Le Fevre was not allowed much
freedom, her suspicious husband being jealous of her good looks. He
usually objected to the mother and daughter going out together, unless
he was with them, so that they often missed their airings to the Tuileries,
the Luxembourg, or the Palais-Royal.
But the young and charming step-daughter was not imprisoned under
the roof-tree of the money-grubbing step-father. She received many
invitations to dinner—then served at what is “tea-time” nowadays-
and met many people who were useful in describing her attractions and
talents elsewhere. The first time she dined “ in town,” as she says, was
with Le Moine, the sculptor, and it was in his house, where two daughters
“ did the honours,” that she met Le Kain, the tragedian, who frightened
her by his gloomy air and his notorious ugliness. “ He did not talk, but
he made an enormous dinner.” Gretry, the composer whose portrait she
was afterwards to paint, and Latour, the pastellist, often dined at Le
Moine’s, and there was plenty of fun and of music after dinner, and some-