First thing in the morning I sent for the architect to arrange the studio, but instead we ended up talking about Gambetta — being from Lorraine, you...
A quantity of articles about our party have appeared, and one in particular attributes the artistic organisation of the evening to Bastien-Lepage. I...
Mme Gavini comes for luncheon and, as she always tells the plain truth, especially given where things stand, I take some pleasure in hearing her say...
Little Bastien takes us to Ville-d'Avray, to the house of Gambetta, where his brother is working.
This morning's *Le Sport* speaks again of the studio decorated by Bastien-Lepage.
I force myself to paint a hand very well and it makes me nearly ill.
Naturally there are a great many visits; the dining room is left open with the table served in the Russian style, and it goes on from three until...
Today we are going out — to the Gavinis', the Jides', the Fitz-Jameses', Etincelle's, etc.
This artist grows greater through persecution. One must not touch him, o Stéphanie? But I love him then. Some dirty invention will be the result — in...
That is why I threw myself on my knees on my bed yesterday, to implore a miracle!
After a crushing day of painting, we go to Etincelle's — she wrote me an adorable letter to thank us for the flowers we sent after her article —...
Ah! I had rather not speak of it! It is atrocious! My ears! My ears! My ears! Since it has been like this I have white hairs by the quantity... Life...
Ill-omened dreams...
After a month of stubborn effort I can go on no longer. This study with Dina is worthless. Worthless because it is below what I am capable of. She...
What now? There are exactly twelve hours since I last complained... I am quite annoyed because of Bastien. And I think his idiot of a brother is...
Gaillard gets us into the Chamber — today is the debate on the exile of the... princes. An enormous crowd; we had the greatest difficulty getting in,...
I do not know what gust of wind passes... I am reborn — I have found a painting... I think one cannot remain long under the weight of such vexations;...
I went to Jacob's to have my fortune told.
It is with some hesitation that I dress to go to the opening of the Watercolourists'. Fortunately Mmes Gavini and Randouin will be with us — alone...
Grand dinner, very chic, 30 rue Ampère. The Vicomtesse de Janzé, Mme Gavini, Princess Bonaparte de Villeneuve, Comtesse Ducos, MM. Gavini, the...
There is a short item in this morning's *Gil Blas* which says: — A grand costume ball is announced at a mansion in the neighbourhood of the Parc...
It has subsided a little today. We go to church.
The day before yesterday, seized with sadness and discouragement, I sought what might console me, to whom I could complain, whose words could calm my...
Tuesday rather dull.
I have begun my painting.
Michka has left for Nice.
I had written to the President of the Union of Women Painters and Sculptors; she replied that she would be at home today, and we go. It is the...
Quite a few people — Princess Jeanne among others, but not the Fitz-Jameses or the Charettes; they have never come on a Saturday... Besides I am very...
I change canvases and start over. I go to church — it takes me two hours away from the painting! The started canvas is abandoned; I began again...
I have exactly thirty days to finish my painting, and two have already passed — that makes thirty-two. I hope to be done in seventeen or eighteen...
If I do not catch some illness I shall be lucky.
Out all day, from ten o'clock until seven. It begins with a visit to Carolus with Adeline. This man is truly an artist. He transports you to the...
The Duchesse de Chaulnes, née Galitzine, has died at the age of twenty-five — in destitution. My God, what a genius this Balzac is — I have read the...
A small reception at the Duchesse de Fitz-James's — we go for half an hour.
Little Etincelle, Mlle de Peyronney, comes for luncheon — we spend the whole afternoon together and I sketch her portrait. She is as sweet as can be.
But I am in haste to proclaim a great, entirely new truth — I have just discovered it with the assistance of my fellow-beings... Fellow-beings —...
Julian writes that he understands nothing of my card but suspects in it a great and bitter reproach — that his conscience is perfectly easy, that he...
That agreeable architect shows up first thing in the morning. We had left it at this — he had asked when the perspective lesson would be, and I had...
I do not attend the reception — the days are lengthening and I can paint until half past five.
It must be dreadful — because I believe I have done something good. For a moment I was pleased with myself, and it gave me a fright that still...
Princess Eristoff and Paul have arrived this morning from Russia, summoned by a telegram from me — my father is very ill, but he is a little better,...
In short it is a series of gay days — I sing, I chat, I laugh, and Bastien-Lepage returns like a refrain. Not his person, not his looks, scarcely his...
Mme Canrobert and her daughter come to see my painting, and then we go to the house for tea and to hear the perspective lesson that Bastien-brother...
My father is truly a disagreeable and malicious man. It is possible that his illness is the cause — yet it seems to me he has not changed. What is...
Tony came to see the painting. He is very pleased with it.
I gave myself the pleasure of speaking the whole evening about the great Bastien with his humble brother. This civilian said such agreeable things...
And this evening came a Finnish sculptor, M. Wolgren. I chose him because his is a decent little household of artists — young, modest, poor — and I...
Perspective lesson from the brother of the illustrious one — Alice, Mlle Canrobert, and I.
Snow has fallen, but I work all the same.
This evening my father has left! What luck. With his sister and with Paul. Those people are nasty people — or close enough.
Perspective lesson with the Canroberts and Alice. Well, the illustrious architect has taught us in three or four lessons everything a painter needs...
The architect came again to see it — he finds that now that I have arranged the background it is good. He assures me it will certainly be noticed.
Julian has at last come to see the painting — I did not ask him; there was only an exchange of letters full of petty squabbles on both sides. But he...
There. It is finished. At three o'clock I was still working, but everyone arrived and I had to leave it. Mme and Mlle Canrobert, Alice, Bojidar,...
I dress and we go to pay calls — at the Gavinis', the Canroberts', Poleyff's, the Baronne Legoux's, the Comtesse Duros's. At Mme Legoux's I believed...
Mme de Charette came today — which means that this evening we go to the Duchesse de Fitz-James's reception.
Perspective lesson as usual. And afterwards the Théâtre-Français. As the architect was dining here he was taken along, and he made a stupid...
I go to give my numbers to Julian, and we chat for more than an hour, about everything in the world.
We dine at the Gaillards'. She was right to marry him — Mme de Quincy, a comtesse who shone in no society, a widow for fifteen years, bored at Nice...
Yesterday I called two craftsmen who built the large-scale armature for the statue from the small clay version I made. And today I drew it and gave...
I have done my portrait this afternoon — life-size to the waist, with the palette. In black with the white collar and jabot without which it is never...
Since yesterday at two o'clock I have been in such a state of agitation as will be understood when I explain why: Villevielle comes to see me and...
We went — Maman, Alice, and I — to be photographed at Benque's, to have portraits of the same size as those of the Maréchale and her daughter. The...
Villevieille writes to congratulate me and explain his silence — it seems Julian had told him he was vexed to know nothing about the painting, that...
Perspective lesson. The Princess and Alexis for dinner, along with Émile Bastien and Alice. We whisper with Alexis — this semblance of flirtation...
From today I wish to mark the days with a white, grey, or black dot, and at the year's end I shall do the tally.