I expected to do something altogether different in this world from what I am doing in it. And since it is not what I thought, it matters little to me...
I am almost smitten with Alexis. You understand that is quite something! In my old age I am becoming too silly. We went skating on the Seine at the...
Here is the article from the *Figaro* that amuses me all day long. [Missing] I have brought Joseph luck; obscure and unknown, I have made him...
Yesterday evening the Virgin Mary received a visit from the Archangel Gabriel, coming on behalf of Joseph. She was returning from her studio and...
Paul is getting married. I consent; she wrote to him yesterday and I consent. I am going to tell you why. She adores him and is very eager to marry...
Yesterday at dinner we had the Mouzays and Gaillard. These future geniuses are deplorable. Do you know what he did? He excused himself twice and,...
Paul was to leave but has not left; we go to the Theatre Francais. I arrange myself as Greuze's broken pitcher, which suits me well despite all these...
I must be coming down with an illness, or else it is this odious joke of Berthe's that is killing me. I am so irritated that I would weep for...
Monsieur de Morgan sends a painted cone of pink satin, full of bonbons. Gabriel, the pure one, the exquisite, a pretty bonbonnière with five or six...
We go to the Opera, Mme Gavini and I (for the Opera it is always she who provides the boxes), with the Comte de Chaudordy, Filippini, and the Marquis...
I cough as much as possible, but by some miracle, far from making me ugly, it gives me an air of languor that suits me well.
Soutzo comes to read the play; this takes until four o'clock. At four o'clock to the Gavinis' to discuss the invitations.
Well, things are going badly.
I went to endure an evening at the Mouzays' in order to make the acquaintance of L. Enault, the art critic, and his wife, who is a painter. It is...
Madame Gavini comes to ask after me, for you know I have a dreadful cold, and finds Gabriel, whom I had telegraphed to charge with a role that he...
We are performing *La Pluie et le beau temps* by L. Gazlan. The Baronne de Gontran - me. The Unknown Man - Prince Soutzo. Victorine - Dina. Anselme -...
Multedo has sent blackbirds from Corsica.
I went to Krishaber's to have my throat electrified.
I go to the studio at eight o'clock and at twenty past eleven find myself before our door at the same time as Gabriel and Courtès. We rehearse for...
Madame Gavini came to see us.
That visit to the foyer was childish. Besides, the pale figure of the archangel is fading. Almost nothing remains of yesterday's tender feelings. As...
Mme Adam's ball is not masked but only costumed. Hence hesitations... then the invitations not being in our names. Finally everything is arranged. I...
A great many people. I slip away for an hour for a fitting at Worth's. It is M. Jean Worth (the son) who attends to me. He made the costume on me,...
We pay many calls. At the Gavinis' there is a crowd. The entire Multedo family, except him. The marquis, the marquise, and Mme Piccioni, née Multedo....
Although unwell, I return to work. And at four o'clock Maman comes to fetch me and we go to finish paying our calls. The rue Vivienne being only a...
I come back from the atelier and learn that old Mother Gavini called, expecting to find me keeping to my room, and that she is furious that I do not...
There is a curious Bonapartist quarrel that you can see in *Le Pays* and *L'Estafette* of the past few days (with my other collected newspapers)....
Tony's mother is very ill; it has been three weeks since we have had any critiques. Breslau is doing a portrait of Mgr. Viard for the Salon.
Our Saturdays are well attended. There are few absentees. Mme Pernety comes and says that Mme Gavini is ill, so that, at about nine in the evening,...
Filippini sat for me; I am doing his portrait.
De Daillens thinks I have committed a grave blunder with Mme Adam and that it must be set right. How? Go and see her again and tell her that, the...
So, I am doing another competition piece. A little girl, very jauntily posed, in a large Rubens hat and a coat with a fur collar. Life-size, of...
sat, in the afternoon. He is rather amusing to paint: small, blond, a round face, a yellow moustache, a good-natured and martial air.
It is curious how often what one writes one day can no longer be understood the next.
It must be a good month since I last went to the Bois. Gambetta in a coupé with a lady. Arnaud in a cabriolet likewise. Monkey.
Tolmatcheff to lunch.
We go to see *The Nabob* at the Vaudeville; it is the fourth performance. The house is very elegant, and we have a considerable parade of *cocottes*....
The Multedo-Satena wedding. It went off delightfully; everything was there: bishop, Queen Isabella, etc., etc., at the church of the Trinité. Berthe...
I am first in the competition. No medal, but they do me the honour of hanging my canvas with the medal winners. To mark the occasion I give a punch...
I should like always to do as I did today: work from 8 to 12 and from 2 to 5 o'clock. At 5 o'clock they bring the lamps and I draw until half past 7....
It is strange that Gabriel sends me nothing. It is a good thing he is far away; I should like never to see him again. It would lead to nothing... and...
Today M. de Miranda presents us to Queen Isabella in a private audience. She is very unaffected, very good-natured; she holds out her hand and has...
To church, then to the Gavinis' with Maman, where there are only Randouin and Las Cases and the Comte de Bearn, who is the first to leave, and then...
I went to see the Mirlitons exhibition with Mlle de Villevieille at 11 o'clock, leaving the atelier an hour early. There is a Detaille so beautiful...
I had a long consultation with old Julian about my Salon picture; I put forward two ideas, which he thinks good.
I have made sketches for my *Question du divorce*. And in the evening we go to the theatre with the Gavinis. It seems that the other evening we made...
I lunch at Mme Gavini's, and we go together to the Chamber. The Amnesty: an exhausted question, but despite that, a great session; a first.
Kiki's fifth sitting.
Sixth sitting. Gabriel's toys are bringing me more. Kiki has given me six boxes of lead soldiers and other lead figures, and a little clockwork cat...
My old harpist sends two tickets for the Conservatoire, and I go there with Maman, leaving at home the Poitrineaus, Wodzinski, and Kiki, who was just...
We call on the Queen, who is very gracious. I am still hunting for a great many things for my picture.
Wodzinsky and Kiki to lunch. Sitting missed; the Poitrineaus arrive. They are stupid and ridiculous because the daughter thinks she is going to marry...
Rouher was to speak, and we go to the Chamber, Gambetta's gallery, tedious, and at four o'clock, Rouher having postponed his speech to Saturday, we...
Julian came to my atelier this morning, and together we looked for poses for the *Divorce*. I hope to begin tomorrow. Kiki's seventh sitting, and...
I go to hear M. Rouher's speech, and I must admit that despite the aridity of the subject, it was interesting. And then Rouher is an orator: no...
There was an enormous crowd, diplomatic corps, etc., at the Te Deum for the Emperor's miraculous escape from yet another nihilist attempt.
My usual existence There is nothing new, but I feel something disagreeable coming, I know not what.
While running after the model Léonie, I have made the acquaintance of almost the entire honourable Beaudoin family. It is pure Zola, the Zola of...
Courtès bored me all evening talking about art and artists.
Flowers were sent from Nice to the Queen, and today we receive her card:
Tchernicheff to lunch; he is passing through. There are several who come and go and then are gone. I tell you this to explain certain names that you...
This evening at the Italian Opera. *Il Trovatore* with Patti and Nicolini. One takes the side of these lovers, but that is, I believe, because M. de...
Now I must not go out in the evening any more, so that I can be up without feeling tired and at work by eight o'clock. I have only sixteen days left.
Soutzo came to bring me feathers.
A great crowd; the salon is truly packed. Saint-Amand stays two and a half hours and says I am his daughter.
I keep working, but nothing is painted yet. And I have only until the 20th of March. If I pull it off, it will be quite something.
At the Italiens: Dina, the Gavinis, Rosita de Miranda, and Courtès.
We go to the Mouzays'.
A telegram from Russia:
Julian came to see my painting; he found the plush-covered table, the book, and the flowers very good. The rest will come; the whole has style, it is...
Needless dramas. Everything is settled; on Saturday reassuring telegrams arrived. There is nothing serious. Old Bashkirtseff proposes to Paul, as...
As soon as I was assured that Dina would stay, I regretted it. I hate being disturbed, even in sorrow. And besides, it would have been better so, for...
Here is a letter from L. Enault of the *Moniteur des Arts*. No doubt la Mouzay spoke to him about me. And the picture will not come right. What is...
Berthe came; Louis Enault arrived immediately after and praised my work. "Vigorous," "virile." And at a quarter to noon, Tony! Why did I not begin...
I go out to see to the formalities of entry forms, etc., etc. At the Salon there is a crowd, and pictures, and drays, and artists!
I wrote a pile of notes and letters yesterday -- to Enault, to Andrieux, to Blanc, and to artists: to Saint-Marceaux, to M. de Caillas, Beaumetz,...
The other evening at the Mouzays' I made the acquaintance of M. Horace de Caillas and his friend Beaumetz. They had invited me to come and see their...
Soutzo brings me Count Lepic, who is a painter and a crank. This man irritated me with advice I had no use for, but it seems it will earn me a few...
Tony came but found nothing to fuss over in my painting... except one flower in the damask of the dress. At six o'clock we were still there talking.
I am putting the last touches to the painting, but I can no longer work on it; there is nothing more to do, or everything to redo. It is finished,...
I have nothing to do, I am resting, and now the troubles begin. First, that idiot Soutzo gave my name, and with Lepic they put this in *L'Événement*:...
We took communion, all three of us: Maman, Dina, and I. Afterwards, I have breakfast; Mouzay is going to pester some gentleman or other who...
Madame de Brimond came to our house.
Last night the most unexpected and astonishing scene, although I have seen quite a few. For four or five days I have been asking for the five hundred...
The Dowager Duchess de Fitz-James, who is president of the Little Sisters of the Assumption charity, invites us to take part in a sale, and we...
I am out of sorts! I should have listened to Tony and rested... I go to pester Julian, to whom I give the following note:
We pay visits and then go to the Horse Show. I send the atelier a crate of oranges, hollowed out and stuffed with paper. I send word to Tony that...
I go round the shops.
Courtès goes off to his Angoulême. Our usual company. Soutzo sends a marvellous basket of flowers from Labrousse's -- roses, camellias, lilacs, etc....
I painted a little head of a Parisienne in a large black hat and otter-skin coat, a bouquet of violets, her head tilted to the side, laughing. I...
Prince Napoleon has spoken, and *L'Estafette* publishes the letter, which I place in my album.
We sell fancy goods, a heap of small items, cigars, cigarettes, etc. My framed painting dominates the booth. We know only the Duchess de Fitz-James...
The sale is livelier. I wear my green dress, which causes a real sensation by its simplicity and by my figure. Soutzo, Wodzinski, Lahovari, the...
Kiki, twenty francs for a cigarette; Las Cases, twenty francs; Rouzat, ten francs; Plancy, ten francs; Morgan, ten francs; Chaudordy, twenty francs....
There are fully forty saleswomen; nearly ten thousand francs were raised, with a thousand to my credit. So I am greatly petted by the ladies, by the...
Few people. M. Moliner, a wealthy Cuban introduced the other evening.
I go to bring strawberries to Mme Gavini and find there Chaudordy, Valentine, and Las Cases.
I shall work all day this week at No. 37. Mlle de Villevieille comes in the afternoons to work with me all week.
Monsieur Anitchkoff has arrived from Petersburg.
For two or three days now Cassagnac has been the father of a son — an important event, since the child will perhaps present himself one day as a...
The costume ball a complete flop. Few people and no one amusing. But I dance with Daillens, Caillas, and two others — and Dina as a ravishing Ophelia.
Being in the mood for something wild, I played baccarat with Soutzo for absurd sums — differences of three and four thousand francs for amusement —...
We dine at the Mirandas'. A charming mezzanine in a new building, comfortable service, a well-kept household; elegant guests.
At the Duchess de Fitz-James's.
I go back to the atelier for the week.
An improvised luncheon, most merry. Mme Gavini returning from a wedding, Saint-Amand, Mme de Bailleul, and Soutzo. Saint-Amand is very excited; he...
But all that vexes me, and something else besides... hostilities, if not enemies, everywhere. Alexandre Dumas — at whose house they speak ill of us —...
Saint-Amand, to whom I had written a note concerning the placing of my painting, arrived around one o'clock, and having written in my presence to the...
We go to see *La vie de Bohème*, which I already knew.