DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0138
CHAPTER IX
CO UNTRY-HOUSES
Country visits—At Colombes with the financier Verdun—At Genevilliers with the courtier
Vaudreuil—Private theatricals—Boredom at Rainey with the Due d’Orleans and his mor-
ganatic wife—Big house-parties of the Marquis de Montesquieu at Maupertuis—The Chateau
of Mortefontaine as “ Liberty Hall ”—A difficult house to sleep in—A ridiculous beau—The
“ Belle-et-Bonne ” of Voltaire—Montmartre—Moulin-Joli
THE days when Elisabeth Vigee had to depend for her enjoyment
of the country upon occasional Sunday excursions to Marly or
Chantilly with the Suzannes were over as soon as she became a
welcome guest in wealthy houses. While still in her teens, she was the
friend of Madame de Verdun, the wife of one of those powerful farmers of
the taxes who, under the system then weighing heavily in France, were
authorised to make large fortunes in the process of extracting money out
of an impoverished people. M. de Verdun appears to have been a kind-
hearted tax-gatherer, who gave away a good deal in charity. He was
also a source of considerable profit to artists and art-dealers. His country
seat was the historic chateau of Colombes, about five miles from Paris,
between Asnieres and Argenteuil. It had once been the home, after her
flight from England, of Queen Henrietta Maria, in whose time the wall-
paintings by Simon Vouet, Court painter to Louis XIII, were still fresh.
The dampness of the Seine valley had now badly damaged them, but
M. de Verdun had them thoroughly “ repaired,” and made them, from the
point of view of that period, “ as good as new.” At Colombes, Elisabeth
Vigee, both as maiden and as married woman, was a frequent guest, and
used sometimes to stay there, when she could keep away from her studio,
for days together. There she found many of her Paris friends, artists,
writers, and wits, and took part in amateur theatricals, a favourite amuse-
ment at that time, in which she thought herself rather a good performer,
as she probably was, being lively of mind and graceful of figure.
Genevilliers, about three miles to the west of Colombes, within the
59
CO UNTRY-HOUSES
Country visits—At Colombes with the financier Verdun—At Genevilliers with the courtier
Vaudreuil—Private theatricals—Boredom at Rainey with the Due d’Orleans and his mor-
ganatic wife—Big house-parties of the Marquis de Montesquieu at Maupertuis—The Chateau
of Mortefontaine as “ Liberty Hall ”—A difficult house to sleep in—A ridiculous beau—The
“ Belle-et-Bonne ” of Voltaire—Montmartre—Moulin-Joli
THE days when Elisabeth Vigee had to depend for her enjoyment
of the country upon occasional Sunday excursions to Marly or
Chantilly with the Suzannes were over as soon as she became a
welcome guest in wealthy houses. While still in her teens, she was the
friend of Madame de Verdun, the wife of one of those powerful farmers of
the taxes who, under the system then weighing heavily in France, were
authorised to make large fortunes in the process of extracting money out
of an impoverished people. M. de Verdun appears to have been a kind-
hearted tax-gatherer, who gave away a good deal in charity. He was
also a source of considerable profit to artists and art-dealers. His country
seat was the historic chateau of Colombes, about five miles from Paris,
between Asnieres and Argenteuil. It had once been the home, after her
flight from England, of Queen Henrietta Maria, in whose time the wall-
paintings by Simon Vouet, Court painter to Louis XIII, were still fresh.
The dampness of the Seine valley had now badly damaged them, but
M. de Verdun had them thoroughly “ repaired,” and made them, from the
point of view of that period, “ as good as new.” At Colombes, Elisabeth
Vigee, both as maiden and as married woman, was a frequent guest, and
used sometimes to stay there, when she could keep away from her studio,
for days together. There she found many of her Paris friends, artists,
writers, and wits, and took part in amateur theatricals, a favourite amuse-
ment at that time, in which she thought herself rather a good performer,
as she probably was, being lively of mind and graceful of figure.
Genevilliers, about three miles to the west of Colombes, within the
59