Victor (Marie's dog)

Overview

Marie's big dog, a mastiff bought in London and brought to Nice on 28 October 1874: «C'est mon mastiff de Londres. Un chien grand comme un veau et magnifique» (025.0013). She gives him many names: «Porthos, Carlo, ou Victor comme on veut» (025.0214), later «Sir Frédéric» (031.0287), «Victor-Désiré» (037.0325), «Frédéric» (043.0247, 046.0324). Mon Journal indexes: t.4 «Victor, [Carlo] [Doria] [Porthos] chien», t.5 «Victor, [Carlo] [Doria] [Porthos] [Sir Frédéric] [Désiré] chien», t.6 «Victor, [Frédéric] chien», t.8-t.12 «Victor, chien». He dies in Paris at the end of August 1878: «Victor est mort. Je m'achèterai un terre-neuve noir» (082.0249).

Relevance to Marie

Her companion on walks along the Promenade, admired and feared by passers-by (027.0188, 030.0073, 033.0016), her confidant in bad days («Victor et Waps mes seuls amis, mes seuls confidents», 031.0099; «Aimons les chiens, n'aimons que les chiens», 037.0135), a model for a life-size portrait (043.0247-0250) and for her «tableaux» on the terrace (059.0705, 062.0835, 067.1475). He stays in Nice while Marie is in Russia in 1876 and greets her on her return: «Victor avec sa grosse tête noire, Pincio blanc comme la neige, Bagatelle, Prater» (067.1394).

Not this Victor

• the French manservant Victor of the Gavronzi household, autumn 1876: Victor (domestique) (066.0524, 067.0083, 067.0844, 067.0983);
• «le roi Victor» (066.0374): Victor Emmanuel II;
• Porthos the Musketeer, Schaeppi's nickname in the atelier game (076.0280), and «le petit Victor», a child at Soden (082.0011).

References in Diary

025.0013 (1874-10-28) to 082.0249 (1878-08-31); about 50 tagged paragraphs.