DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.66024#0151
LADY HAMILTON AND OTHERS 83
and when in Florence she visited the Uffizi Gallery, and amongst other
portraits was attracted by the one of Angelica. In one of her letters written
at this time, she says: “ I noticed with a certain pride the portrait of Angelica
Kauffmann, one of the glories of our sex.” From Florence, in November, 1789,
Madame Lebrun moved on to Rome, whence, on the 1st of December, she
wrote to her old friend, Hubert Robert, a long letter, in which Mr. Helm, her
biographer, says she gives him her impressions of the city, describing in glowing
terms her emotions at the sight of the paintings of Raphael and Michael Angelo.
Then it was that, being in the same city with Angelica, she went to visit her,
and in her letter to Robert writes thus concerning the painter : “I found her
very interesting, apart from her talents, on account of her intelligence and her
knowledge. She is a woman of about fifty,1 very delicate, her health having
suffered in consequence of her marriage in the first instance with an adventurer
who had ruined her. She has since been married again, to an architect, who
acts as her man of business. She has talked with me a great deal and very
well, during the two evenings that I have spent with her. Her conversation
is agreeable, elle a prodigieusement d'instruction, mais aucun enthousiasme, ce
qui, vu monpeu de savoir, ne nd a point electrisee.”
Madame Lebrun continues her letter with further reference to Angelica.
“ Angelica,” says she, “ possesses some paintings by the great Masters. I saw
several of her own works; her sketches pleased me more than her pictures,
because their colouring is like that of Titian. I dined with her and with our
Ambassador, Cardinal Bernis, whom I had dined with three days after my
arrival. He placed us both at table by his side. He had invited several
strangers, and several of the diplomatic staff, so that we were thirty at the table,
the Cardinal doing the honours most gracefully, although for himself he never
ate more than two dishes of vegetables; but the curious part was yet to come.
This morning I was awoke at seven, and the family of the Cardinal de Bernis
was announced. I was astonished 1 I arose in great haste, and they entered;
this family consisted of five great big footmen in livery, who came to demand
from me, as the guest of their master, a ‘ buonomano.’ I was informed that
they came for some drink money. I wished them good-morning.”
The extraordinary circumstance in connection with this visit is that seven
years afterwards, Herder, who was evidently not at all aware of the fact that
Angelica and Madame Lebrun had already met, and were on terms of agreeable
friendship, wrote a letter from Weimar, dated September 10th, 1795, announc-
ing the fact that Madame Lebrun was coming to Rome, and saying that he was
sure that she would desire to see Angelica. At that very time, Madame Lebrun
was in Russia, spending her time in St. Petersburg, whence she had come from
Vienna, leaving that city in April, 1795. The journey had taken three months,
and it was in July of 1795 that the artist exile appeared in the capital of Russia
and twenty-four hours after her arrival had the message to say that she would
be received by the Empress Catherine II. Her reception was an exceedingly
1 Angelica Kauffmann was, in fact, forty-eight at that time.
and when in Florence she visited the Uffizi Gallery, and amongst other
portraits was attracted by the one of Angelica. In one of her letters written
at this time, she says: “ I noticed with a certain pride the portrait of Angelica
Kauffmann, one of the glories of our sex.” From Florence, in November, 1789,
Madame Lebrun moved on to Rome, whence, on the 1st of December, she
wrote to her old friend, Hubert Robert, a long letter, in which Mr. Helm, her
biographer, says she gives him her impressions of the city, describing in glowing
terms her emotions at the sight of the paintings of Raphael and Michael Angelo.
Then it was that, being in the same city with Angelica, she went to visit her,
and in her letter to Robert writes thus concerning the painter : “I found her
very interesting, apart from her talents, on account of her intelligence and her
knowledge. She is a woman of about fifty,1 very delicate, her health having
suffered in consequence of her marriage in the first instance with an adventurer
who had ruined her. She has since been married again, to an architect, who
acts as her man of business. She has talked with me a great deal and very
well, during the two evenings that I have spent with her. Her conversation
is agreeable, elle a prodigieusement d'instruction, mais aucun enthousiasme, ce
qui, vu monpeu de savoir, ne nd a point electrisee.”
Madame Lebrun continues her letter with further reference to Angelica.
“ Angelica,” says she, “ possesses some paintings by the great Masters. I saw
several of her own works; her sketches pleased me more than her pictures,
because their colouring is like that of Titian. I dined with her and with our
Ambassador, Cardinal Bernis, whom I had dined with three days after my
arrival. He placed us both at table by his side. He had invited several
strangers, and several of the diplomatic staff, so that we were thirty at the table,
the Cardinal doing the honours most gracefully, although for himself he never
ate more than two dishes of vegetables; but the curious part was yet to come.
This morning I was awoke at seven, and the family of the Cardinal de Bernis
was announced. I was astonished 1 I arose in great haste, and they entered;
this family consisted of five great big footmen in livery, who came to demand
from me, as the guest of their master, a ‘ buonomano.’ I was informed that
they came for some drink money. I wished them good-morning.”
The extraordinary circumstance in connection with this visit is that seven
years afterwards, Herder, who was evidently not at all aware of the fact that
Angelica and Madame Lebrun had already met, and were on terms of agreeable
friendship, wrote a letter from Weimar, dated September 10th, 1795, announc-
ing the fact that Madame Lebrun was coming to Rome, and saying that he was
sure that she would desire to see Angelica. At that very time, Madame Lebrun
was in Russia, spending her time in St. Petersburg, whence she had come from
Vienna, leaving that city in April, 1795. The journey had taken three months,
and it was in July of 1795 that the artist exile appeared in the capital of Russia
and twenty-four hours after her arrival had the message to say that she would
be received by the Empress Catherine II. Her reception was an exceedingly
1 Angelica Kauffmann was, in fact, forty-eight at that time.