Mlle Tchernitsky ("la Cerny")

Who she was

Mlle Tchernitsky is a Russian singer and general hanger-on of the Russian colony in Paris who is called "la Cerny" in the diary from 1879 to 1882 and "Tchernitsky" (once "Tchernisky") from December 1881 onwards. They are the same person: Marie explains it herself on 31 January 1880 -- "la Tchernitsky (de Cerny nom de carrière)" (087.0394) -- and in April 1879 "Mlle Cernitsky, read Cerny for the theatre" (085.0026). Her first name and dates are not known; no source outside the diary has been found.

What Marie says of her in 1880 (087.0394): she is "of good family", brought up at the institute for noble girls (the Smolny Institute is not named), whose fine voice had been noticed and who is pensioned by the Emperor to develop it; instead she "goes about, knows all the Russians and enjoys herself", though Marie thinks her "an honest girl". She claims to write on pathology, physiology, education and chemistry, "stirs up business deals" and always announces that she is about to earn eleven or twelve million. Marie puts her at twenty-four or twenty-five, and, in a deleted phrase, thought she looked much like the soprano Christine Nilsson. In 1879 she is described as "a future singer protected by the Basilewskys" (084.0709; see Basilewsky).

Marie and Tchernitsky

Marie never warms to her. Her verdicts run from "bête" ("stupid", 089.0365, August 1880) and "assommante, bête, criarde et agaçante" (087.0394) to "folle" (mad): "la Tchernitsky, folle de bois?" (094.0094, 18 December 1881), "autrement dite la folle" (100.0475, 3 August 1883), and, in August 1881, "a good type still, I think her mad; she understands nothing or little and asks questions that make you fall from the sky ... this wooden woman" (092.0417-0418).

As singer. On 27 April 1879 at the Bashkirtseffs' she "bellowed in the most incredible and extraordinary fashion", driving Marie, Daillens and Multedo into the studio and Filippini and Dina after them (085.0026). On 18 May 1880 she and the aunt go with Marie to an evening at Mme de Bailleul's where Cerny and a fat suitor sing (088.0226).

As model. In August 1881 Marie tries to use her as a model; "she wants it with all her heart, to have a painting to hang at home, but poses badly" (092.0415-0418, 15-16 August), and on 23 August "la Cerny poses, and so badly! She is not as stupid as one thinks but... something is missing in her brain" (093.0014). On 28 August 1882 she sketches her while she reads in a corner (096.0139).

In the circle. She dines often: with Saint-Amand in October-November 1880 (090.0167, 090.0198), with the Engelhardts, the pope, Bojidar and Tchoumakoff in 1882-84. On 6 January 1881 Marie takes her to the board meeting of the future newspaper La Citoyenne (090.0544). On 24 April 1881 she is at the house with the princess Karageorgevitch and Engelhardt (091.0522). A soirée on 25 May 1880 is summed up by Marie as "the Russian colony: the Engelhardt son and la Cernitsky" (quoted in Paris). In April 1882 Marie learns from her and her dressmaker a story that Marie was "abducted" in Nice (094.0465). In 1883 she is one of the few at the church service after the death of Marie's father (100.0141, 13 June); on 15 August she tells Marie that she met Bastien-Lepage that morning (101.0125); and on 18 August Marie praises Cazin to tease her (101.0171). On 28 February 1884 her presence is the only thing that keeps Marie from "saying Jules all the time" (103.0422).

Related entries

Sources

The diary only. A web search for a Russian singer "Cerny/Tchernitsky", an alumna of an institute for noble girls and protégée of the Basilewskys, found nothing.