DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0093
THE QUEEN’S KINDNESS
35
Madame, that Her Majesty expected you, and as she is now going out she
will certainly not give you a sitting to-day.” Madame Lebrun remarked
that she only came to take Her Majesty’s orders. She was sent for to the
Queen’s dressing-room, and having explained her non-appearance of the
day before, and asked to know the Queen’s pleasure, Marie Antoinette
countermanded her carriage and at once began a “ sitting.” The end of
this reminiscence reminds us of several anecdotes of royal personages and
their painters—of Charles V and Titian, of Philip IV and Velasquez for
examples. “ I remember,” says Madame Lebrun, “ that in my eagerness
to respond to such kindness I snatched up my paint-box so hastily that I
upset it; my brushes, my pencils fell on to the floor. I stooped to repair
my clumsiness. ‘ Stop, stop ! ’ said the Queen: 1 you must not stoop; ’ and,
in spite of my protests, she picked everything up herself.” This kindly
act on the part of Marie Antoinette was such as any woman of decent
feeling would naturally perform for another whose condition was that of
Madame Lebrun at the time. Surely it is a strange perversion of respect
which would give to acts of sympathy or courtesy on the part of a Prince,
a merit which would not be allowed to them in the case of a commoner.
High as was the painter’s admiration for the Queen, she does not enlarge
further on this example of womanly sympathy.
The patronage of the Queen, however ill-respected that Queen may
have been by those who surrounded her, brought many commissions to the
painter. As she herself has recorded, she painted in turn every member
of the Royal Family except the Comte d’Artois, younger brother of the
King. The Comte de Provence (afterwards Louis XVIII) relieved his
tedium as a sitter by singing vulgar songs. “ How do you think I sing ? ”
he asked the painter. “ Like a prince, Monsieur,” she tells us was her
reply. Scores of ladies and gentlemen of the Court—particularly ladies-
were soon waiting their turns to “ sit.” Almost any Court painter can get
plenty of commissions, but when that painter is able to diminish wrinkles,
to straighten crooked mouths a little, to fine down noses and to brighten
eyes without spoiling the likeness, it is natural that there should be some
difficulty in getting an appointment for “ sittings ” in that painter’s studio.
35
Madame, that Her Majesty expected you, and as she is now going out she
will certainly not give you a sitting to-day.” Madame Lebrun remarked
that she only came to take Her Majesty’s orders. She was sent for to the
Queen’s dressing-room, and having explained her non-appearance of the
day before, and asked to know the Queen’s pleasure, Marie Antoinette
countermanded her carriage and at once began a “ sitting.” The end of
this reminiscence reminds us of several anecdotes of royal personages and
their painters—of Charles V and Titian, of Philip IV and Velasquez for
examples. “ I remember,” says Madame Lebrun, “ that in my eagerness
to respond to such kindness I snatched up my paint-box so hastily that I
upset it; my brushes, my pencils fell on to the floor. I stooped to repair
my clumsiness. ‘ Stop, stop ! ’ said the Queen: 1 you must not stoop; ’ and,
in spite of my protests, she picked everything up herself.” This kindly
act on the part of Marie Antoinette was such as any woman of decent
feeling would naturally perform for another whose condition was that of
Madame Lebrun at the time. Surely it is a strange perversion of respect
which would give to acts of sympathy or courtesy on the part of a Prince,
a merit which would not be allowed to them in the case of a commoner.
High as was the painter’s admiration for the Queen, she does not enlarge
further on this example of womanly sympathy.
The patronage of the Queen, however ill-respected that Queen may
have been by those who surrounded her, brought many commissions to the
painter. As she herself has recorded, she painted in turn every member
of the Royal Family except the Comte d’Artois, younger brother of the
King. The Comte de Provence (afterwards Louis XVIII) relieved his
tedium as a sitter by singing vulgar songs. “ How do you think I sing ? ”
he asked the painter. “ Like a prince, Monsieur,” she tells us was her
reply. Scores of ladies and gentlemen of the Court—particularly ladies-
were soon waiting their turns to “ sit.” Almost any Court painter can get
plenty of commissions, but when that painter is able to diminish wrinkles,
to straighten crooked mouths a little, to fine down noses and to brighten
eyes without spoiling the likeness, it is natural that there should be some
difficulty in getting an appointment for “ sittings ” in that painter’s studio.