Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Wednesday, 24 August 1881

Alexis and Bojidar are back. Bojidar is entirely given over to Sarah. There is no longer any way of getting near him, and he would let himself be broken on the wheel to maintain that she detests publicity, is not in the least affected, and so on and so forth. Much more of this and he will maintain she is a virgin. Alexis is equally enchanted to be admitted to the intimacy of the great artist. And like the two young simpletons they are, they talk of this woman with a satisfaction, a youthful vanity. I do not blame them — but I am envious, and it irritates me to hear Sarah Bernhardt praised; and at the same time I am pleased by it, for I know how much mise en scène1 contributes to her success. Far be it from me to suggest she is not graceful, charming, intelligent — she is all of that. But her sculpture and her painting are worth nothing. Ah, but the mise en scène.

# Mercredi 24 août 1881

It gives her an artistic aura — universal, magnificent — that her talent alone could never have given her.

Cela lui fait une aureole artistique, universelle, superbe que son talent seul ne lui aurait jamais donne.

And so I have decided to treat myself to a considerable mise en scène.

Or je suis decidee a me payer une mise en scene considerable.

I shall build a mansion more beautiful than Sarah Bernhardt's and studios larger than hers.

Je vais batir un hotel plus beau que celui de Sarah Bernhardt et des ateliers plus grands.

Her mansion must be worth at most three hundred thousand francs — not even that — I am speaking only of the land and the construction. The rest…

Son hotel doit valoir trois cent mille francs tout au plus-pas meme, je ne parle que du terrain et de la construction. Le reste...

So I can spend five hundred thousand francs by selling in Nice and with the help of the Crédit foncier.2 In addition I shall have the sixty thousand roubles that are only waiting for the end of the lawsuit to go into my pocket — sixty thousand roubles come to nearly two hundred thousand francs, which I shall spend little by little on various furnishings for my house.

Donc, je puis depenser cinq cent mille francs en vendant a Nice et en m'aidant du Credit foncier. En outre j'aurai les soixante mille roubles qui n'attendant que la fin du proces pour entrer dans ma poche, soixante mille roubles font pres de deux cent mille francs que je depenserai petit a petit en arrangements divers de ma maison.

Then there is the famous sale of a Russian property which is to give me a capital of six hundred thousand francs — thirty thousand in annual income. Why, I am going to be rolling in money! More or less. For there will still be eighty thousand francs of income for the family and thirty thousand for me. Can you picture it — thirty thousand francs a year just for me. But I need not even spend the two hundred thousand francs mentioned above — I have only to add them to the six hundred thousand, making eight hundred thousand francs, and with a small effort, a piece of land sold, two hundred thousand more — a million francs in all. That would be fifty thousand francs a year, with which I can decorate my house handsomely without foolishly spending a capital of two hundred thousand francs. And once that is settled and progress made in painting and sculpture — well, one might, for the sake of a proper position, marry a decent man of good family who will leave me perfectly in peace.

Maintenant il y a la fameuse vente d'un bien de Russie qui doit me donner un capital de six cent mille francs, soit trente mille de rente. Mais je vais rouler sur l'or ! A peu pres. Car il restera encore quatre vingt mille francs de rente a la famille et les trente mille a moi. Voyez-vous ces trente mille francs de rente rien qu'a moi. Mais je puis meme ne pas depenser les deux cent mille francs susnommes, je n'ai qu'a les joindre aux six cent mille, ce qui fait huit cent mille francs et avec un petit effort, un morceau de terre vendu, deux cent mille un million de francs. Soit cinqante mille francs de rente avec lesquels je pourrai bien decorer ma maison sans depenser betement un capital de deux cent mille francs. Et une fois regle et des progres faits en peinture et sculpture, eh bien on pourra pour avoir une situation reguliere epouser un brave homme de bonne famille qui me laissera bien tranquille.

And it is no more clever than that.

Et ce n'est pas plus malin que ca.

Starting tomorrow I shall begin by inquiring about the prices of several plots I have marked out. M. Dubel is an architect I believe to be suitable — he will only have to give practical form to my fancies. He has been forewarned.

Des demain je commence par m'informer des prix de divers terrains que j'ai marques. M. Dubel est un architecte je crois convenable, il n'aura qu'a donner une forme pratique a mes fantaisies. Il est prevenu.

Notes

Mise en scène: theatrical staging and self-presentation; here Marie uses the term to mean the deliberate construction of a public image. ↩
Crédit foncier de France: the French land mortgage bank, founded 1852, which financed property loans. ↩