Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Thursday, 19 May 1881

Since Tuesday I have been painting the portrait of the daughter of the famous baritone Maurel.1 She is fourteen and a half and ravishing. It was Villevieille who brought her. Maurel and his wife occupy a fine small townhouse on the rue Lord Byron and give artistic evenings — most interesting ones — attended by a few society women as well. Yesterday Saint-Amand came to the studio with Maurel, and Maurel came back again today.

Depuis mardi je fais le portrait de la fille du célèbre baryton Maurel. Elle a quatorze ans et demi et est ravissante. C'est Villevieille qui l'a amenée. Maurel et sa femme occupent un joli petit hôtel rue lord Byron et donnent des soirées artistiques, tout ce qu'il y a de plus intéressant où vont quelques femmes du monde également. Hier Saint Amand est venu à l'atelier avec Maurel et ce dernier est revenu aujourd'hui.

It appears he is a painter as Ingres was a violinist...2

Il paraît qu'il est peintre comme Ingres était violoniste...

Apropos of music — I charmed the ears of my masters with the mandolin. Julian declares that instrument moves him extraordinarily.

A propos de musique j'ai charmé les oreilles de mes maîtres par la mandoline. Julian prétend que cet instrument le remue extraordinairement.

Notes

Victor Maurel (1848–1923): celebrated French baritone, one of the great operatic voices of his generation, later the creator of Verdi's Iago and Falstaff. His townhouse on the rue Lord Byron was a gathering place for Paris artistic society. ↩
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780–1867) was famous for his passionate love of the violin — he played it daily but was emphatically not a musician. The phrase violon d'Ingres entered French idiom meaning a hobby or secondary talent cultivated with earnest but limited skill. Marie uses it to gently mock Maurel's amateur painting. ↩