And the girl dreaming at the foot of the tree, "languid and intoxicated" as A. Theuriet says. If one could truly render that effect of sap, of...
But I couldn't care less — he has talent but he is stupid, a stupidity of the kind Emile Bastien has, who is very sensible, an artist, good for...
Maman is better; she received visitors.
And he has written a ravishing piece in *Le Gaulois* — I feel myself softening towards him... It is all very amusing.
*Le Voltaire*, which publishes a similar issue, treats me as well as *Le Gaulois*. These are the important pieces. *Le Journal des Arts*, which also...
There is nothing to see. This heap of painting — without conviction, without thought, without identity — is horrible. They are either clever...
Then painters: Munkacsy and his wife, Hébert, and so on.
He has a host of good things to tell me. I have a *real and genuine success*! Not relatively speaking — not just among you or the atelier comrades —...
Alongside the *Christ Crucified* he has just finished, he is exhibiting *Christ before Pilate* from two years ago. It strikes me as far better than...
But to think — to believe — that one is going to die soon? Do I believe it? No. But I fear it.
I am mad to want to write. Am I capable of it? I have not the strength, I know nothing. I know nothing. I know nothing.
It is amusing. But you know, I cannot quite believe that this is happening.
How is it that Wolff has said nothing about my painting? Is he an idiot, then? Or he has not seen it — that is still possible; going through Room 17...
To please such a man one would do anything! And you think yourself capable of love... like everyone else! Ah! Lord.
After days of bitter cold we have had 28 and 29 degrees for three days. It is oppressive. I am finishing a study of a little girl in the garden, in...
My painting *Jean et Jacques* has received an honourable mention at Nice. Everyone is wild with joy — except me.
And so here we are, friends — by reason of our shared tenderness for the great Jules. You will see what comes of it.
He also dares say that Bastien has never known how to compose a painting, that he paints portraits and that his pictures are portraits — and also...
Julian comes to dinner this evening; he did not want to come, he says, having no good news to give. As the moment approaches all his men are...
It is charming — and Carolus is on the Jury, but I breathe not a word of it.
There are six hundred million francs' worth of paintings there, and it is only a third of what he has done. I am in dark grey. Mme Gavini is with us,...
Today they voted on the first and second medals. Tomorrow, the third-class medals.
And why? Ah! wretchedness. I have come back from Sèvres. Ah! it is dreadful. The landscape has changed so much one can no longer touch it — it is no...
Some troublesome conscience appears to have awakened. I do not exaggerate your power, but there are three or four influential men there — Bouguereau,...
But it is horribly galling.
Tony writes to me in the same vein, and I reply:
One tries to believe in a Force above all things that one need only invoke... This operation involves neither fatigue, nor friction, nor humiliation,...
So she writes to Coppée, obtains an audience, writes to him from Rome, brings him a painting — a copy of a Madonna. The poet thanks her for the...
— I would a hundred times rather have painted your picture than Maurin's, he says.
Yes I have — I have been reading Sully-Prudhomme since yesterday morning. I have two volumes of him here and find it very good... I pay little...
Poor old fellow, poor dear, poor boy.
And then I paint flowers. A panel for Etincelle.
All the same, they are thoroughly scoundrels for not having given my painting a medal.
He was my devoted and faithful dog — weeping when I went out, waiting for hours sitting at the window. Then in Rome I became infatuated with another...
It has been so long that I have clamoured for all this...
My gown is of white silk muslin; the bodice, formed of two crossed draperies, is knotted at the shoulders [Words blacked out: by the ends of those...
We arrived a little late — Mme Frederiks was not at the ambassadress's side, with whom Maman exchanged a few words. I am very composed and very much...
It rains — and the painting it delays!!
I told you I believe a firm called Oppé & Co. enquired about the price. They are major dealers. I was foolish enough to say six thousand francs — and...
The priest, Bagnitsky, and Lehmann the painter to dinner.
He charges the architect to "send me his regards" and to thank me for the embroidery.
It is no longer Venus Callipygian — it is Diana. I could be content with Diana, but Diana can turn into a skeleton...
The canvas has been brought and I have sketched the wrestlers.
As a man I should have conquered Europe. As a young girl I dissipated myself in excess of language and eccentric follies. Wretchedness!
— Then we shall go to see him tomorrow! says Maman.
In 1872 at Nice, we had a monkey called Philibert who died of some slow illness I cannot name. We used to lay him on the villa terrace in the sun, on...
We sent Jules a Russian soup. Our cook is not strong on other things, but he makes soups like no one else. They are marvellous broths — especially...
And three months — three months.
But I return early — five o'clock. It is more or less finished.