DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61284#0229
A WONDERFUL SINGER
m
a very pretty child of sixteen, Miss Pitt, a daughter of Lord Camelford,
whom she represents as Hebe, sitting in a cloud, and holding a drinking-
cup to an eagle. The eagle which “ sat ” for this picture, and which
belonged to Cardinal de Bernis, gave the artist a great fright. “ The
cursed animal, which was accustomed to be always in the open air, chained
in a courtyard, was so furious at finding itself in my room, that it wanted
to dash upon me.”
The Comtesse Potocka, who is shown in her portrait seated on a mossy
rock beside a cascade, astonished the artist by her sang-froid. The Comte
brought her to the studio, and, as soon as he had left the house, she said :
“ That is my third husband ; but I think I shall take back the first, who
suits me better, although he drinks.”
Mademoiselle Roland, the mistress, and shortly afterwards the wife
of an English nobleman, was the subject of a portrait which (though the
name has been given in an exhibition catalogue at the London Guildhall to
one of Madame Lebrun’s other portraits of ladies) it seems almost impossible
to identify. Among the distinguished women whom Madame did not
paint at Rome was the prima donna Banti, whose wonderful voice was
apparently due to a physical organisation which, as described by Vigee-
Lebrun, was assuredly unusual, if not unique. “ This admirable singer
was shaped in a very peculiar manner : her chest was high, and constructed
exactly like a pair of bellows, as she showed to me and some other ladies
in a dressing-room, after the concert, and I thought that this strange
organisation accounted for the power and flexibility of her voice.”
The most eminent personage whom Madame Lebrun failed to paint
at Rome was the Pope himself. The Abbe Maury, an old acquaintance
of the artist, came to tell her that His Holiness wished to sit to her. “ But
it was necessary that I should be veiled while I painted the Holy Father,
and the fear that I could not under such conditions accomplish anything
to my satisfaction obliged me to decline this honour. I did so with much
regret, for Pius VI was still one of the handsomest men that could be
found.”
Her chief friend in Rome was the lovely and fascinating Duchesse de
Fleury. "We were naturally drawn to one another; she loved the arts,
and, like me, had a passion for the beauties of nature. I found in her a
companion such as I had often desired.” The Duchess’s passion had other
objects than scenery and flowers. She was at that time carrying on a
correspondence with the Due de Lauzun, a man as immoral as he was
m
a very pretty child of sixteen, Miss Pitt, a daughter of Lord Camelford,
whom she represents as Hebe, sitting in a cloud, and holding a drinking-
cup to an eagle. The eagle which “ sat ” for this picture, and which
belonged to Cardinal de Bernis, gave the artist a great fright. “ The
cursed animal, which was accustomed to be always in the open air, chained
in a courtyard, was so furious at finding itself in my room, that it wanted
to dash upon me.”
The Comtesse Potocka, who is shown in her portrait seated on a mossy
rock beside a cascade, astonished the artist by her sang-froid. The Comte
brought her to the studio, and, as soon as he had left the house, she said :
“ That is my third husband ; but I think I shall take back the first, who
suits me better, although he drinks.”
Mademoiselle Roland, the mistress, and shortly afterwards the wife
of an English nobleman, was the subject of a portrait which (though the
name has been given in an exhibition catalogue at the London Guildhall to
one of Madame Lebrun’s other portraits of ladies) it seems almost impossible
to identify. Among the distinguished women whom Madame did not
paint at Rome was the prima donna Banti, whose wonderful voice was
apparently due to a physical organisation which, as described by Vigee-
Lebrun, was assuredly unusual, if not unique. “ This admirable singer
was shaped in a very peculiar manner : her chest was high, and constructed
exactly like a pair of bellows, as she showed to me and some other ladies
in a dressing-room, after the concert, and I thought that this strange
organisation accounted for the power and flexibility of her voice.”
The most eminent personage whom Madame Lebrun failed to paint
at Rome was the Pope himself. The Abbe Maury, an old acquaintance
of the artist, came to tell her that His Holiness wished to sit to her. “ But
it was necessary that I should be veiled while I painted the Holy Father,
and the fear that I could not under such conditions accomplish anything
to my satisfaction obliged me to decline this honour. I did so with much
regret, for Pius VI was still one of the handsomest men that could be
found.”
Her chief friend in Rome was the lovely and fascinating Duchesse de
Fleury. "We were naturally drawn to one another; she loved the arts,
and, like me, had a passion for the beauties of nature. I found in her a
companion such as I had often desired.” The Duchess’s passion had other
objects than scenery and flowers. She was at that time carrying on a
correspondence with the Due de Lauzun, a man as immoral as he was