Paul Bashkirtseff

Who he was

Paul (Pavel Konstantinovich) Bashkirtsev, in French usage Paul Bashkirtseff (1859--1899), was Marie's younger brother. Both dates come from Kernberger (2013, Appendix I, Glossary: "Bashkirtseff, Paul: Marie's brother (1859-1899)"); no second source for either was found. Marie's own remark that he was "usé autant qu'on peut l'être à quatorze ans" in March 1874 (017.0466) fits a birth in 1859 or early 1860. He was born at Gavronzi near Poltava, the son of #Papa (Constantin Bashkirtseff, 1833--1883) and #Maman (Maria Stepanovna Babanina, 1833--1920), and the grandson of General Paul Grigorievitch Bashkirtseff (#Paul_Grigorievitch_Bashkirtseff). In 1880 he married Alexandrine Patchenko ("Nini", #Nini); they had at least two children (below).

Childhood and Nice

In the preface Marie remembers that her father and grandfather, in their attempts to win back Maman, took the two children to Gavronzi and hid them; when Maman and her brothers came to take them back by force, "Paul et moi étions dans une chambre, grand-maman dans une autre et mon père dans une troisième", Marie's maternal grandmother shouting insults across the passage (000.0013). At five Marie, dancing as Petipa, notes that "Paul n'était presque rien" (000.0034). A fortune-teller in Poltava told Maman: "le fils sera comme tout le monde, mais la fille sera une étoile" (000.0031). The family left Russia in 1870; Paul is in the party at Baden-Baden in June 1870 (000.0023) and grows up in Nice.

Marie was merciless about him. On 24 March 1874 she describes a boy of fourteen who "sait à peine écrire et lire", spends his time in cafés, the kitchen and at the roulette table or in the streets, goes to the theatre and comes home at two or three in the morning, with the cook Adam as "son compagnon et mentor" and actresses in his education (017.0466; "Maman n'y peut presque rien"). In 1876 she painted his portrait (see #Portrait_Paul, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nice). At Poltava in September 1876 he is the family's chatterbox ("Kapitan faisait des gestes désespérés pour empêcher Paul de bavarder", 066, 1876-09-06). When Walitsky dies in January 1878 Paul is "nerveux comme une femme" (077.0171) and "fou de Cassagnac" (077.0175).

1875: the Zankovsky affair

On 17 August 1875 a letter from Russia brings on another of Maman's attacks: «Paul va se faire volontairement soldat. Les Zankovsky le poussent à cela, il s'est amouraché de la fille cadette qui se conduit mal» (039.0102). The former entry PAUL_BASHKIRTSEFF is merged here.

Marriage to Alexandrine Patchenko, 1879--1881

On 28 December 1879 Paul, then in Paris, announces that he will marry "Nini": "Paul se marie. Moi je consens"; she is "d'assez bonne famille connue, du même pays, voisine, assez riche, jeune, jolie et d'après ses lettres bonne nature" (087.0078). On the 31st Marie writes her a cordial letter -- "Moi, je fais des vœux pour votre bonheur" (087.0107) -- but privately finds that "Paul, taillé en hercule et beau garçon, pourrait faire un meilleur mariage" (087.0109).

In March 1880 the wedding was disrupted: as Paul and his fiancée "entraient à l'église pour être mariés", their father arrived with a letter from the archbishop and "tout a été détraqué" (087.0590, 10 March). Maman feared Paul had tried to kill himself (087.0595); Marie, worried above all that her mother and Dina would be called away from the Salon picture she was finishing, writes on 12 March: "Jugez-moi comme vous voudrez, les drames de Paul m'ont laissée calme et ceci me désespère et m'exaspère" and that "Paul a vingt ans et qui peut répondre de lui dans cinq ans ?" (087.0601, 087.0605). On the 15th the father proposes that Paul go and ask for the girl's hand officially "pour effacer le scandale" (087.0611). By 30 November 1880 "Paul est marié. Et il l'a fait si crânement que je leur ferai un cadeau commémoratif" (090.0283).

In February 1881 Maman and Dina came back to Paris and reported: the wedding was "chez Michel" and "le lendemain Paul a amené sa femme à Gavronzi"; "M. Bashkirtseff très ému est sorti les recevoir sur le perron", the bride threw herself at Maman's feet, and Paul "pâle et tremblant se tenait appuyé au mur" (091.0191). The couple were given a separate pavilion at Gavronzi, but the father-in-law, M. Patchenko (#M_Patchenko), "n'a rien donné à la femme" (091.0191). Visiting in July 1881, Marie finds the marriage joyless: Paul "presque toujours maussade, madame est indifférente dans sa satisfaction d'avoir atteint son but" (092.0250, 13 July). On Paul's name day, 11 July, military musicians play during dinner and Marie gives him fifty roubles for the quadrille (092.0242, 092.0245). Maman is "très montée contre Paul, elle est même en quelque sorte haineuse pour lui", which Marie blames on Uncle Alexandre, who was buying out the inheritance shares and was "brouillé avec Paul" (092.0223, 092.0228). In 1881 Marie also painted his wife (see #Portrait_belle_soeur: Portrait de sa belle-sœur, 1881, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).

1882--1884

1882. At the end of June Marie reads a letter from Maman to Paul in which Maman says Marie is again gravely ill (095.0223); a week later Paul himself is "très malade" according to the telegrams, and Maman is distraught (095.0249). On 13 September Marie notes that "la femme de Paul accouche" (096.0237). In October she travels to Gavronzi with Paul, after Ma tante has "lâchée à la frontière" (096.0378). He tells her the two neighbouring Kotchoubey princes, one of the reasons for the trip, are "tout à fait charmants" with 200,000 roubles of income each (096.0384; see 096.0014), and she is embarrassed that fellow passengers take brother and sister for husband and wife (096.0386--0387). At Gavronzi on 15 October she finds Paul's wife with "un garçon de quinze jours" and a daughter a year old (096.0389). Marie records Nini's complaints that Paul is "un mauvais père"; Paul "tâchait de le prendre en riant ... Il dit à tout propos qu'il adore sa femme et qu'il est parfaitement heureux, il le dit trop" (096.0401--0403), yet "Paul est le meilleur mari du monde": he got no dowry, and everything Maman gave him goes on his wife and children (096.0404). On 29 October the newborn is baptised Constantin, with Marie and Papa as godparents (096.0459). In November the couple quarrel without end, mother and daughter trying nightly to reconcile them; Maman had given Paul land that could bring him 20,000 francs a year, but it was not the season to sell the produce (097.0018). On 15 November, back in Paris, Marie sums up his wife: "bête, vaine, orgueilleuse et fausse" -- Maman adds "méchante" (097.0073); Paul "est bien à plaindre" (097.0072).

1883. On 26 February the Princess Eristoff and Paul arrive from Russia, summoned by Marie's telegram about their father's illness (098.0412). He goes back on 11 March with his father and aunt, in second class while they travel first: "Quant à Paul c'est un brave garçon que sa femme rend bien malheureux" (098.0478--0479). A dispatch from Paul on 13 May calls Maman to Poltava (099.0439). After the death Marie hears that the "ménage Paul n'est pas gentil avec maman, surtout Mme Paul que maman a défendu, accueillie, acceptée", and that "maman a tout donné à Paul" (100.0204--0205). On 13 July she writes him five pages of "injures parfaitement méritées" (100.0311).

September 1883. Paul arrives in Paris on 20 September with plans and calculations for the estate. His proposal is to give Marie 10,000 roubles for her share and sell everything at once; Marie suspects he will sell nothing and keep the whole property, the debts being 140,000 roubles (101.0411--0413). On 25 September, by Marie's account, he claimed that their father had been fond of his daughter-in-law, "le plus impudent des mensonges" (101.0437); she made him return the power of attorney signed at the consulate -- "Ma confiance est partie" (101.0440) -- but in the evening of the 26th they were "très bons amis", reminiscing about their father (101.0441). He left Paris on 27 September with her "pleins pouvoirs", having sworn on his children's heads not to cheat (101.0455). Marie's last remarks on him are indirect: on 11 July 1884 an actor's understated manner reminds her of "mon frère Paul ... sans malice; il ressemble à Dupuis aussi physiquement" (105.0131); and on 16 May 1884 he is on her list, with Dina, Ma tante and Maman, of those for whom she would sacrifice her dog Coco (104.0199). On 1 June 1880 she had addressed a sealed testament to him at Poltava (088.0468); the diary does not say what it contained.

After 1884

Paul survived his sister by fifteen years (d. 1899, per Kernberger). No source seen records his later life or the fate of the Gavronzi estate.

Related entries

Sources