DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0113
46
VIGEE-LEBRUN
long tete-d-tete with the “grande dame,” her elder by some thirteen years.
“ Her conversation, always lively, was rich in ideas, full of happy
touches, and for all that one could not recall, among all the witty things
that constantly fell from her lips, a single word which was soiled by
scandal. The fact is all the more remarkable since that very superior
woman owed to her tact, to the extreme clearness of her understanding, a
perfect knowledge of men, and that she was a bit of a misanthrope, as
her talk more than once showed me. . . . One day, when we were
talking of the attachment and fidelity of our two little dogs, I said : ‘ I
wish that dogs could speak—they would tell us such pretty things ! ’
‘ If they spoke, my dear,’ she replied, ‘ they would also understand,
and they would soon be corrupted.’ ”
At one or other of the dinners or supper-tables which she frequented,
Vigee-Lebrun frequently met with the Comtesse d’Angiviller (formerly
Madame Marchais), the wife of that “ Director-General of Royal Buildings,
Gardens, Manufactures and Academies” who was so helpful in the matter
of the Academy “ election.” She was an exceedingly gushing person, who
never, as Dr. Johnson said to a woman of her type, “considered what
her flattery was worth before applying it so freely.” Madame Lebrun
could stand compliments pretty well, but some of Madame d’Angiviller’s
passed the limit which divides the agreeable from the ridiculous, and at
times were embarrassing both to the recipient and to the rest of the
company. For example, she cordially greeted a man of quite exceptional
ugliness with the remark, “ Why, really, Monsieur, you have grown quite
handsome ! ”
Madame Lebrun’s description of this too polite lady recalls an unusual
form of nature-worship. “Although I have often seen Madame d’Angiviller,
and have frequently sat next to her at table, I cannot say whether she was
ugly or pretty. Tier face was always covered by a veil, which she did
not take off even at dinner. That veil not only covered her face, but also
an immense bouquet, which she constantly carried at her side, made of
sprigs from green trees. . . . When I went into her bedroom, I was still
more surprised to see it adorned by stands always covered with every
kind of foliage, not even taken away at night.”
Vigee-Lebrun frequently saw Benjamin Franklin. The first time was
at the Court, when he was received, with the other foreign ambassadors,
by the King. In his Quaker-like costume, among the magnificent nobles
from the great European States, he must have afforded an even more
VIGEE-LEBRUN
long tete-d-tete with the “grande dame,” her elder by some thirteen years.
“ Her conversation, always lively, was rich in ideas, full of happy
touches, and for all that one could not recall, among all the witty things
that constantly fell from her lips, a single word which was soiled by
scandal. The fact is all the more remarkable since that very superior
woman owed to her tact, to the extreme clearness of her understanding, a
perfect knowledge of men, and that she was a bit of a misanthrope, as
her talk more than once showed me. . . . One day, when we were
talking of the attachment and fidelity of our two little dogs, I said : ‘ I
wish that dogs could speak—they would tell us such pretty things ! ’
‘ If they spoke, my dear,’ she replied, ‘ they would also understand,
and they would soon be corrupted.’ ”
At one or other of the dinners or supper-tables which she frequented,
Vigee-Lebrun frequently met with the Comtesse d’Angiviller (formerly
Madame Marchais), the wife of that “ Director-General of Royal Buildings,
Gardens, Manufactures and Academies” who was so helpful in the matter
of the Academy “ election.” She was an exceedingly gushing person, who
never, as Dr. Johnson said to a woman of her type, “considered what
her flattery was worth before applying it so freely.” Madame Lebrun
could stand compliments pretty well, but some of Madame d’Angiviller’s
passed the limit which divides the agreeable from the ridiculous, and at
times were embarrassing both to the recipient and to the rest of the
company. For example, she cordially greeted a man of quite exceptional
ugliness with the remark, “ Why, really, Monsieur, you have grown quite
handsome ! ”
Madame Lebrun’s description of this too polite lady recalls an unusual
form of nature-worship. “Although I have often seen Madame d’Angiviller,
and have frequently sat next to her at table, I cannot say whether she was
ugly or pretty. Tier face was always covered by a veil, which she did
not take off even at dinner. That veil not only covered her face, but also
an immense bouquet, which she constantly carried at her side, made of
sprigs from green trees. . . . When I went into her bedroom, I was still
more surprised to see it adorned by stands always covered with every
kind of foliage, not even taken away at night.”
Vigee-Lebrun frequently saw Benjamin Franklin. The first time was
at the Court, when he was received, with the other foreign ambassadors,
by the King. In his Quaker-like costume, among the magnificent nobles
from the great European States, he must have afforded an even more