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diff --git a/old/1230.txt b/old/1230.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46e8a43 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1230.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1375 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierre Grassou, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pierre Grassou + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: March, 1998 [Etext #1230] +Posting Date: February 21, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRE GRASSOU *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers and Dagny + + + + + +PIERRE GRASSOU + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + +Dedication + +To The Lieutenant-Colonel of Artillery, Periollas, As a Testimony of the +Affectionate Esteem of the Author, + +De Balzac + + + + + +PIERRE GRASSOU + + +Whenever you have gone to take a serious look at the exhibition of works +of sculpture and painting, such as it has been since the revolution +of 1830, have you not been seized by a sense of uneasiness, weariness, +sadness, at the sight of those long and over-crowded galleries? Since +1830, the true Salon no longer exists. The Louvre has again been taken +by assault,--this time by a populace of artists who have maintained +themselves in it. + +In other days, when the Salon presented only the choicest works of art, +it conferred the highest honor on the creations there exhibited. Among +the two hundred selected paintings, the public could still choose: a +crown was awarded to the masterpiece by hands unseen. Eager, impassioned +discussions arose about some picture. The abuse showered on Delacroix, +on Ingres, contributed no less to their fame than the praises and +fanaticism of their adherents. To-day, neither the crowd nor the +criticism grows impassioned about the products of that bazaar. Forced to +make the selection for itself, which in former days the examining +jury made for it, the attention of the public is soon wearied and the +exhibition closes. Before the year 1817 the pictures admitted never went +beyond the first two columns of the long gallery of the old masters; but +in that year, to the great astonishment of the public, they filled the +whole space. Historical, high-art, genre paintings, easel pictures, +landscapes, flowers, animals, and water-colors,--these eight specialties +could surely not offer more than twenty pictures in one year worthy of +the eyes of the public, which, indeed, cannot give its attention to a +greater number of such works. The more the number of artists increases, +the more careful and exacting the jury of admission ought to be. + +The true character of the Salon was lost as soon as it spread along +the galleries. The Salon should have remained within fixed limits of +inflexible proportions, where each distinct specialty could show its +masterpieces only. An experience of ten years has shown the excellence +of the former institution. Now, instead of a tournament, we have a mob; +instead of a noble exhibition, we have a tumultuous bazaar; instead of +a choice selection we have a chaotic mass. What is the result? A great +artist is swamped. Decamps' "Turkish Cafe," "Children at a Fountain," +"Joseph," and "The Torture," would have redounded far more to his credit +if the four pictures had been exhibited in the great Salon with the +hundred good pictures of that year, than his twenty pictures could, +among three thousand others, jumbled together in six galleries. + +By some strange contradiction, ever since the doors are open to every +one there has been much talk of unknown and unrecognized genius. When, +twelve years earlier, Ingres' "Courtesan," and that of Sigalon, the +"Medusa" of Gericault, the "Massacre of Scio" by Delacroix, the "Baptism +of Henri IV." by Eugene Deveria, admitted by celebrated artists accused +of jealousy, showed the world, in spite of the denials of criticism, +that young and vigorous palettes existed, no such complaint was made. +Now, when the veriest dauber of canvas can send in his work, the whole +talk is of genius neglected! Where judgment no longer exists, there is +no longer anything judged. But whatever artists may be doing now, they +will come back in time to the examination and selection which presents +their works to the admiration of the crowd for whom they work. Without +selection by the Academy there will be no Salon, and without the Salon +art may perish. + +Ever since the catalogue has grown into a book, many names have appeared +in it which still remain in their native obscurity, in spite of the ten +or a dozen pictures attached to them. Among these names perhaps the most +unknown to fame is that of an artist named Pierre Grassou, coming from +Fougeres, and called simply "Fougeres" among his brother-artists, who, +at the present moment holds a place, as the saying is, "in the sun," and +who suggested the rather bitter reflections by which this sketch of +his life is introduced,--reflections that are applicable to many other +individuals of the tribe of artists. + +In 1832, Fougeres lived in the rue de Navarin, on the fourth floor of +one of those tall, narrow houses which resemble the obelisk of Luxor, +and possess an alley, a dark little stairway with dangerous turnings, +three windows only on each floor, and, within the building, a courtyard, +or, to speak more correctly, a square pit or well. Above the three or +four rooms occupied by Grassou of Fougeres was his studio, looking over +to Montmartre. This studio was painted in brick-color, for a background; +the floor was tinted brown and well frotted; each chair was furnished +with a bit of carpet bound round the edges; the sofa, simple enough, was +clean as that in the bedroom of some worthy bourgeoise. All these things +denoted the tidy ways of a small mind and the thrift of a poor man. A +bureau was there, in which to put away the studio implements, a table +for breakfast, a sideboard, a secretary; in short, all the articles +necessary to a painter, neatly arranged and very clean. The stove +participated in this Dutch cleanliness, which was all the more visible +because the pure and little changing light from the north flooded with +its cold clear beams the vast apartment. Fougeres, being merely a genre +painter, does not need the immense machinery and outfit which ruin +historical painters; he has never recognized within himself sufficient +faculty to attempt high-art, and he therefore clings to easel painting. + +At the beginning of the month of December of that year, a season at +which the bourgeois of Paris conceive, periodically, the burlesque idea +of perpetuating their forms and figures already too bulky in themselves, +Pierre Grassou, who had risen early, prepared his palette, and lighted +his stove, was eating a roll steeped in milk, and waiting till the frost +on his windows had melted sufficiently to let the full light in. The +weather was fine and dry. At this moment the artist, who ate his bread +with that patient, resigned air that tells so much, heard and recognized +the step of a man who had upon his life the influence such men have +on the lives of nearly all artists,--the step of Elie Magus, a +picture-dealer, a usurer in canvas. The next moment Elie Magus entered +and found the painter in the act of beginning his work in the tidy +studio. + +"How are you, old rascal?" said the painter. + +Fougeres had the cross of the Legion of honor, and Elie Magus bought his +pictures at two and three hundred francs apiece, so he gave himself the +airs of a fine artist. + +"Business is very bad," replied Elie. "You artists have such +pretensions! You talk of two hundred francs when you haven't put six +sous' worth of color on a canvas. However, you are a good fellow, I'll +say that. You are steady; and I've come to put a good bit of business in +your way." + +"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes," said Fougeres. "Do you know Latin?" + +"No." + +"Well, it means that the Greeks never proposed a good bit of business +to the Trojans without getting their fair share of it. In the olden time +they used to say, 'Take my horse.' Now we say, 'Take my bear.' Well, +what do you want, Ulysses-Lagingeole-Elie Magus?" + +These words will give an idea of the mildness and wit with which +Fougeres employed what painters call studio fun. + +"Well, I don't deny that you are to paint me two pictures for nothing." + +"Oh! oh!" + +"I'll leave you to do it, or not; I don't ask it. But you're an honest +man." + +"Come, out with it!" + +"Well, I'm prepared to bring you a father, mother, and only daughter." + +"All for me?" + +"Yes--they want their portraits taken. These bourgeois--they are crazy +about art--have never dared to enter a studio. The girl has a 'dot' of a +hundred thousand francs. You can paint all three,--perhaps they'll turn +out family portraits." + +And with that the old Dutch log of wood who passed for a man and who was +called Elie Magus, interrupted himself to laugh an uncanny laugh which +frightened the painter. He fancied he heard Mephistopheles talking +marriage. + +"Portraits bring five hundred francs apiece," went on Elie; "so you can +very well afford to paint me three pictures." + +"True for you!" cried Fougeres, gleefully. + +"And if you marry the girl, you won't forget me." + +"Marry! I?" cried Pierre Grassou,--"I, who have a habit of sleeping +alone; and get up at cock-crow, and all my life arranged--" + +"One hundred thousand francs," said Magus, "and a quiet girl, full of +golden tones, as you call 'em, like a Titian." + +"What class of people are they?" + +"Retired merchants; just now in love with art; have a country-house at +Ville d'Avray, and ten or twelve thousand francs a year." + +"What business did they do?" + +"Bottles." + +"Now don't say that word; it makes me think of corks and sets my teeth +on edge." + +"Am I to bring them?" + +"Three portraits--I could put them in the Salon; I might go in for +portrait-painting. Well, yes!" + +Old Elie descended the staircase to go in search of the Vervelle family. +To know to what extend this proposition would act upon the painter, and +what effect would be produced upon him by the Sieur and Dame Vervelle, +adorned by their only daughter, it is necessary to cast an eye on the +anterior life of Pierre Grassou of Fougeres. + +When a pupil, Fougeres had studied drawing with Servin, who was +thought a great draughtsman in academic circles. After that he went to +Schinner's, to learn the secrets of the powerful and magnificent color +which distinguishes that master. Master and scholars were all discreet; +at any rate Pierre discovered none of their secrets. From there he went +to Sommervieux' atelier, to acquire that portion of the art of painting +which is called composition, but composition was shy and distant to him. +Then he tried to snatch from Decamps and Granet the mystery of their +interior effects. The two masters were not robbed. Finally Fougeres +ended his education with Duval-Lecamus. During these studied and +these different transformations Fougeres' habits and ways of life were +tranquil and moral to a degree that furnished matter of jesting to the +various ateliers where he sojourned; but everywhere he disarmed his +comrades by his modesty and by the patience and gentleness of a lamblike +nature. The masters, however, had no sympathy for the good lad; masters +prefer bright fellows, eccentric spirits, droll or fiery, or else gloomy +and deeply reflective, which argue future talent. Everything about +Pierre Grassou smacked of mediocrity. His nickname "Fougeres" (that +of the painter in the play of "The Eglantine") was the source of much +teasing; but, by force of circumstances, he accepted the name of the +town in which he had first seen light. + +Grassou of Fougeres resembled his name. Plump and of medium height, he +had a dull complexion, brown eyes, black hair, a turned-up nose, rather +wide mouth, and long ears. His gentle, passive, and resigned air gave a +certain relief to these leading features of a physiognomy that was full +of health, but wanting in action. This young man, born to be a virtuous +bourgeois, having left his native place and come to Paris to be clerk +with a color-merchant (formerly of Mayenne and a distant connection of +the Orgemonts) made himself a painter simply by the fact of an obstinacy +which constitutes the Breton character. What he suffered, the manner in +which he lived during those years of study, God only knows. He suffered +as much as great men suffer when they are hounded by poverty and hunted +like wild beasts by the pack of commonplace minds and by troops of +vanities athirst for vengeance. + +As soon as he thought himself able to fly on his own wings, Fougeres +took a studio in the upper part of the rue des Martyrs, where he began +to delve his way. He made his first appearance in 1819. The first +picture he presented to the jury of the Exhibition at the Louvre +represented a village wedding rather laboriously copied from Greuze's +picture. It was rejected. When Fougeres heard of the fatal decision, +he did not fall into one of those fits of epileptic self-love to which +strong natures give themselves up, and which sometimes end in challenges +sent to the director or the secretary of the Museum, or even by threats +of assassination. Fougeres quietly fetched his canvas, wrapped it in +a handkerchief, and brought it home, vowing in his heart that he would +still make himself a great painter. He placed his picture on the easel, +and went to one of his former masters, a man of immense talent,--to +Schinner, a kind and patient artist, whose triumph at that year's Salon +was complete. Fougeres asked him to come and criticise the rejected +work. The great painter left everything and went at once. When poor +Fougeres had placed the work before him Schinner, after a glance, +pressed Fougeres' hand. + +"You are a fine fellow," he said; "you've a heart of gold, and I must +not deceive you. Listen; you are fulfilling all the promises you made in +the studios. When you find such things as that at the tip of your brush, +my good Fougeres, you had better leave colors with Brullon, and not take +the canvas of others. Go home early, put on your cotton night-cap, and +be in bed by nine o'clock. The next morning early go to some government +office, ask for a place, and give up art." + +"My dear friend," said Fougeres, "my picture is already condemned; it is +not a verdict that I want of you, but the cause of that verdict." + +"Well--you paint gray and sombre; you see nature being a crape veil; +your drawing is heavy, pasty; your composition is a medley of Greuze, +who only redeemed his defects by the qualities which you lack." + +While detailing these faults of the picture Schinner saw on Fougeres' +face so deep an expression of sadness that he carried him off to dinner +and tried to console him. The next morning at seven o'clock Fougeres was +at his easel working over the rejected picture; he warmed the colors; he +made the corrections suggested by Schinner, he touched up his figures. +Then, disgusted with such patching, he carried the picture to Elie +Magus. Elie Magus, a sort of Dutch-Flemish-Belgian, had three reasons +for being what he became,--rich and avaricious. Coming last from +Bordeaux, he was just starting in Paris, selling old pictures and living +on the boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle. Fougeres, who relied on his palette +to go to the baker's, bravely ate bread and nuts, or bread and milk, or +bread and cherries, or bread and cheese, according to the seasons. Elie +Magus, to whom Pierre offered his first picture, eyed it for some time +and then gave him fifteen francs. + +"With fifteen francs a year coming in, and a thousand francs for +expenses," said Fougeres, smiling, "a man will go fast and far." + +Elie Magus made a gesture; he bit his thumbs, thinking that he might +have had that picture for five francs. + +For several days Pierre walked down from the rue des Martyrs and +stationed himself at the corner of the boulevard opposite to Elie's +shop, whence his eye could rest upon his picture, which did not obtain +any notice from the eyes of the passers along the street. At the end of +a week the picture disappeared; Fougeres walked slowly up and approached +the dealer's shop in a lounging manner. The Jew was at his door. + +"Well, I see you have sold my picture." + +"No, here it is," said Magus; "I've framed it, to show it to some one +who fancies he knows about painting." + +Fougeres had not the heart to return to the boulevard. He set about +another picture, and spent two months upon it,--eating mouse's meals and +working like a galley-slave. + +One evening he went to the boulevard, his feet leading him fatefully to +the dealer's shop. His picture was not to be seen. + +"I've sold your picture," said Elie Magus, seeing him. + +"For how much?" + +"I got back what I gave and a small interest. Make me some Flemish +interiors, a lesson of anatomy, landscapes, and such like, and I'll buy +them of you," said Elie. + +Fougeres would fain have taken old Magus in his arms; he regarded him as +a father. He went home with joy in his heart; the great painter Schinner +was mistaken after all! In that immense city of Paris there were some +hearts that beat in unison with Pierre's; his talent was understood and +appreciated. The poor fellow of twenty-seven had the innocence of a lad +of sixteen. Another man, one of those distrustful, surly artists, would +have noticed the diabolical look on Elie's face and seen the twitching +of the hairs of his beard, the irony of his moustache, and the movement +of his shoulders which betrayed the satisfaction of Walter Scott's Jew +in swindling a Christian. + +Fougeres marched along the boulevard in a state of joy which gave to his +honest face an expression of pride. He was like a schoolboy protecting +a woman. He met Joseph Bridau, one of his comrades, and one of those +eccentric geniuses destined to fame and sorrow. Joseph Bridau, who had, +to use his own expression, a few sous in his pocket, took Fougeres to +the Opera. But Fougeres didn't see the ballet, didn't hear the music; he +was imagining pictures, he was painting. He left Joseph in the middle +of the evening, and ran home to make sketches by lamp-light. He invented +thirty pictures, all reminiscence, and felt himself a man of genius. The +next day he bought colors, and canvases of various dimensions; he piled +up bread and cheese on his table, he filled a water-pot with water, +he laid in a provision of wood for his stove; then, to use a studio +expression, he dug at his pictures. He hired several models and Magus +lent him stuffs. + +After two months' seclusion the Breton had finished four pictures. Again +he asked counsel of Schinner, this time adding Bridau to the invitation. +The two painters saw in three of these pictures a servile imitation +of Dutch landscapes and interiors by Metzu, in the fourth a copy of +Rembrandt's "Lesson of Anatomy." + +"Still imitating!" said Schinner. "Ah! Fougeres can't manage to be +original." + +"You ought to do something else than painting," said Bridau. + +"What?" asked Fougeres. + +"Fling yourself into literature." + +Fougeres lowered his head like a sheep when it rains. Then he asked and +obtained certain useful advice, and retouched his pictures before taking +them to Elie Magus. Elie paid him twenty-five francs apiece. At that +price of course Fougeres earned nothing; neither did he lose, thanks to +his sober living. He made a few excursions to the boulevard to see what +became of his pictures, and there he underwent a singular hallucination. +His neat, clean paintings, hard as tin and shiny as porcelain, were +covered with a sort of mist; they looked like old daubs. Magus was out, +and Pierre could obtain no information on this phenomenon. He fancied +something was wrong with his eyes. + +The painter went back to his studio and made more pictures. After seven +years of continued toil Fougeres managed to compose and execute quite +passable work. He did as well as any artist of the second class. +Elie bought and sold all the paintings of the poor Breton, who earned +laboriously about two thousand francs a year while he spent but twelve +hundred. + +At the Exhibition of 1829, Leon de Lora, Schinner, and Bridau, who all +three occupied a great position and were, in fact, at the head of the +art movement, were filled with pity for the perseverance and the poverty +of their old friend; and they caused to be admitted into the grand salon +of the Exhibition, a picture by Fougeres. This picture, powerful in +interest but derived from Vigneron as to sentiment and from Dubufe's +first manner as to execution, represented a young man in prison, whose +hair was being cut around the nape of the neck. On one side was +a priest, on the other two women, one old, one young, in tears. A +sheriff's clerk was reading aloud a document. On a wretched table was a +meal, untouched. The light came in through the bars of a window near +the ceiling. It was a picture fit to make the bourgeois shudder, and +the bourgeois shuddered. Fougeres had simply been inspired by the +masterpiece of Gerard Douw; he had turned the group of the "Dropsical +Woman" toward the window, instead of presenting it full front. The +condemned man was substituted for the dying woman--same pallor, same +glance, same appeal to God. Instead of the Dutch doctor, he had painted +the cold, official figure of the sheriff's clerk attired in black; but +he had added an old woman to the young one of Gerard Douw. The cruelly +simple and good-humored face of the executioner completed and dominated +the group. This plagiarism, very cleverly disguised, was not discovered. +The catalogue contained the following:-- + + 510. Grassou de Fougeres (Pierre), rue de Navarin, 2. + Death-toilet of a Chouan, condemned to execution in 1809. + +Though wholly second-rate, the picture had immense success, for it +recalled the affair of the "chauffeurs," of Mortagne. A crowd collected +every day before the now fashionable canvas; even Charles X. paused to +look at it. "Madame," being told of the patient life of the poor Breton, +became enthusiastic over him. The Duc d'Orleans asked the price of +the picture. The clergy told Madame la Dauphine that the subject was +suggestive of good thoughts; and there was, in truth, a most satisfying +religious tone about it. Monseigneur the Dauphin admired the dust on +the stone-floor,--a huge blunder, by the way, for Fougeres had painted +greenish tones suggestive of mildew along the base of the walls. +"Madame" finally bought the picture for a thousand francs, and the +Dauphin ordered another like it. Charles X. gave the cross of the Legion +of honor to this son of a peasant who had fought for the royal cause +in 1799. (Joseph Bridau, the great painter, was not yet decorated.) The +minister of the Interior ordered two church pictures of Fougeres. + +This Salon of 1829 was to Pierre Grassou his whole fortune, fame, +future, and life. Be original, invent, and you die by inches; copy, +imitate, and you'll live. After this discovery of a gold mine, Grassou +de Fougeres obtained his benefit of the fatal principle to which society +owes the wretched mediocrities to whom are intrusted in these days the +election of leaders in all social classes; who proceed, naturally, to +elect themselves and who wage a bitter war against all true talent. The +principle of election applied indiscriminately is false, and France will +some day abandon it. + +Nevertheless the modesty, simplicity, and genuine surprise of the good +and gentle Fougeres silenced all envy and all recriminations. Besides, +he had on his side all of his clan who had succeeded, and all who +expected to succeed. Some persons, touched by the persistent energy of a +man whom nothing had discouraged, talked of Domenichino and said:-- + +"Perseverance in the arts should be rewarded. Grassou hasn't stolen his +successes; he has delved for ten years, the poor dear man!" + +That exclamation of "poor dear man!" counted for half in the support +and the congratulations which the painter received. Pity sets up +mediocrities as envy pulls down great talents, and in equal numbers. +The newspapers, it is true, did not spare criticism, but the chevalier +Fougeres digested them as he had digested the counsel of his friends, +with angelic patience. + +Possessing, by this time, fifteen thousand francs, laboriously earned, +he furnished an apartment and studio in the rue de Navarin, and painted +the picture ordered by Monseigneur the Dauphin, also the two church +pictures, and delivered them at the time agreed on, with a punctuality +that was very discomforting to the exchequer of the ministry, accustomed +to a different course of action. But--admire the good fortune of men who +are methodical--if Grassou, belated with his work, had been caught by +the revolution of July he would not have got his money. + +By the time he was thirty-seven Fougeres had manufactured for Elie Magus +some two hundred pictures, all of them utterly unknown, by the help of +which he had attained to that satisfying manner, that point of execution +before which the true artist shrugs his shoulders and the bourgeoisie +worships. Fougeres was dear to friends for rectitude of ideas, for +steadiness of sentiment, absolute kindliness, and great loyalty; though +they had no esteem for his palette, they loved the man who held it. + +"What a misfortune it is that Fougeres has the vice of painting!" said +his comrades. + +But for all this, Grassou gave excellent counsel, like those +feuilletonists incapable of writing a book who know very well where a +book is wanting. There was this difference, however, between literary +critics and Fougeres; he was eminently sensitive to beauties; he felt +them, he acknowledged them, and his advice was instinct with a spirit +of justice that made the justness of his remarks acceptable. After +the revolution of July, Fougeres sent about ten pictures a year to the +Salon, of which the jury admitted four or five. He lived with the most +rigid economy, his household being managed solely by an old charwoman. +For all amusement he visited his friends, he went to see works of art, +he allowed himself a few little trips about France, and he planned to go +to Switzerland in search of inspiration. This detestable artist was an +excellent citizen; he mounted guard duly, went to reviews, and paid his +rent and provision-bills with bourgeois punctuality. + +Having lived all his life in toil and poverty, he had never had the time +to love. Poor and a bachelor, until now he did not desire to complicate +his simple life. Incapable of devising any means of increasing his +little fortune, he carried, every three months, to his notary, Cardot, +his quarterly earnings and economies. When the notary had received +about three thousand francs he invested them in some first mortgage, the +interest of which he drew himself and added to the quarterly payments +made to him by Fougeres. The painter was awaiting the fortunate moment +when his property thus laid by would give him the imposing income of two +thousand francs, to allow himself the otium cum dignitate of the +artist and paint pictures; but oh! what pictures! true pictures! each a +finished picture! chouette, Koxnoff, chocnosoff! His future, his dreams +of happiness, the superlative of his hopes--do you know what it was? +To enter the Institute and obtain the grade of officer of the Legion +of honor; to side down beside Schinner and Leon de Lora, to reach the +Academy before Bridau, to wear a rosette in his buttonhole! What a +dream! It is only commonplace men who think of everything. + +Hearing the sound of several steps on the staircase, Fougeres rubbed up +his hair, buttoned his jacket of bottle-green velveteen, and was not a +little amazed to see, entering his doorway, a simpleton face vulgarly +called in studio slang a "melon." This fruit surmounted a pumpkin, +clothed in blue cloth adorned with a bunch of tintinnabulating baubles. +The melon puffed like a walrus; the pumpkin advanced on turnips, +improperly called legs. A true painter would have turned the little +bottle-vendor off at once, assuring him that he didn't paint vegetables. +This painter looked at his client without a smile, for Monsieur Vervelle +wore a three-thousand-franc diamond in the bosom of his shirt. + +Fougeres glanced at Magus and said: "There's fat in it!" using a slang +term then much in vogue in the studios. + +Hearing those words Monsieur Vervelle frowned. The worthy bourgeois drew +after him another complication of vegetables in the persons of his wife +and daughter. The wife had a fine veneer of mahogany on her face, and +in figure she resembled a cocoa-nut, surmounted by a head and tied in +around the waist. She pivoted on her legs, which were tap-rooted, +and her gown was yellow with black stripes. She proudly exhibited +unutterable mittens on a puffy pair of hands; the plumes of a +first-class funeral floated on an over-flowing bonnet; laces adorned +her shoulders, as round behind as they were before; consequently, the +spherical form of the cocoa-nut was perfect. Her feet, of a kind that +painters call abatis, rose above the varnished leather of the shoes in a +swelling that was some inches high. How the feet were ever got into the +shoes, no one knows. + +Following these vegetable parents was a young asparagus, who presented +a tiny head with smoothly banded hair of the yellow-carroty tone that a +Roman adores, long, stringy arms, a fairly white skin with reddish spots +upon it, large innocent eyes, and white lashes, scarcely any brows, a +leghorn bonnet bound with white satin and adorned with two honest bows +of the same satin, hands virtuously red, and the feet of her mother. The +faces of these three beings wore, as they looked round the studio, an +air of happiness which bespoke in them a respectable enthusiasm for Art. + +"So it is you, monsieur, who are going to take our likenesses?" said the +father, assuming a jaunty air. + +"Yes, monsieur," replied Grassou. + +"Vervelle, he has the cross!" whispered the wife to the husband while +the painter's back was turned. + +"Should I be likely to have our portraits painted by an artist who +wasn't decorated?" returned the former bottle-dealer. + +Elie Magus here bowed to the Vervelle family and went away. Grassou +accompanied him to the landing. + +"There's no one but you who would fish up such whales." + +"One hundred thousand francs of 'dot'!" + +"Yes, but what a family!" + +"Three hundred thousand francs of expectations, a house in the rue +Boucherat, and a country-house at Ville d'Avray!" + +"Bottles and corks! bottles and corks!" said the painter; "they set my +teeth on edge." + +"Safe from want for the rest of your days," said Elie Magus as he +departed. + +That idea entered the head of Pierre Grassou as the daylight had burst +into his garret that morning. + +While he posed the father of the young person, he thought the +bottle-dealer had a good countenance, and he admired the face full +of violent tones. The mother and daughter hovered about the easel, +marvelling at all his preparations; they evidently thought him a +demigod. This visible admiration pleased Fougeres. The golden calf threw +upon the family its fantastic reflections. + +"You must earn lots of money; but of course you don't spend it as you +get it," said the mother. + +"No, madame," replied the painter; "I don't spend it; I have not the +means to amuse myself. My notary invests my money; he knows what I have; +as soon as I have taken him the money I never think of it again." + +"I've always been told," cried old Vervelle, "that artists were baskets +with holes in them." + +"Who is your notary--if it is not indiscreet to ask?" said Madame +Vervelle. + +"A good fellow, all round," replied Grassou. "His name is Cardot." + +"Well, well! if that isn't a joke!" exclaimed Vervelle. "Cardot is our +notary too." + +"Take care! don't move," said the painter. + +"Do pray hold still, Antenor," said the wife. "If you move about you'll +make monsieur miss; you should just see him working, and then you'd +understand." + +"Oh! why didn't you have me taught the arts?" said Mademoiselle Vervelle +to her parents. + +"Virginie," said her mother, "a young person ought not to learn certain +things. When you are married--well, till then, keep quiet." + +During this first sitting the Vervelle family became almost intimate +with the worthy artist. They were to come again two days later. As they +went away the father told Virginie to walk in front; but in spite of +this separation, she overheard the following words, which naturally +awakened her curiosity. + +"Decorated--thirty-seven years old--an artist who gets orders--puts his +money with our notary. We'll consult Cardot. Hein! Madame de Fougeres! +not a bad name--doesn't look like a bad man either! One might prefer a +merchant; but before a merchant retires from business one can never know +what one's daughter may come to; whereas an economical artist--and then +you know we love Art--Well, we'll see!" + +While the Vervelle family discussed Pierre Grassou, Pierre Grassou +discussed in his own mind the Vervelle family. He found it impossible to +stay peacefully in his studio, so he took a walk on the boulevard, and +looked at all the red-haired women who passed him. He made a series of +the oddest reasonings to himself: gold was the handsomest of metals; a +tawny yellow represented gold; the Romans were fond of red-haired women, +and he turned Roman, etc. After two years of marriage what man would +ever care about the color of his wife's hair? Beauty fades,--but +ugliness remains! Money is one-half of all happiness. That night when he +went to bed the painter had come to think Virginie Vervelle charming. + +When the three Vervelles arrived on the day of the second sitting the +artist received them with smiles. The rascal had shaved and put on clean +linen; he had also arranged his hair in a pleasing manner, and chosen +a very becoming pair of trousers and red leather slippers with pointed +toes. The family replied with smiles as flattering as those of the +artist. Virginie became the color of her hair, lowered her eyes, and +turned aside her head to look at the sketches. Pierre Grassou thought +these little affectations charming, Virginie had such grace; happily she +didn't look like her father or her mother; but whom did she look like? + +During this sitting there were little skirmishes between the family +and the painter, who had the audacity to call pere Vervelle witty. This +flattery brought the family on the double-quick to the heart of the +artist; he gave a drawing to the daughter, and a sketch to the mother. + +"What! for nothing?" they said. + +Pierre Grassou could not help smiling. + +"You shouldn't give away your pictures in that way; they are money," +said old Vervelle. + +At the third sitting pere Vervelle mentioned a fine gallery of pictures +which he had in his country-house at Ville d'Avray--Rubens, Gerard Douw, +Mieris, Terburg, Rembrandt, Titian, Paul Potter, etc. + +"Monsieur Vervelle has been very extravagant," said Madame Vervelle, +ostentatiously. "He has over one hundred thousand francs' worth of +pictures." + +"I love Art," said the former bottle-dealer. + +When Madame Vervelle's portrait was begun that of her husband was nearly +finished, and the enthusiasm of the family knew no bounds. The notary +had spoken in the highest praise of the painter. Pierre Grassou was, he +said, one of the most honest fellows on earth; he had laid by thirty-six +thousand francs; his days of poverty were over; he now saved about ten +thousand francs a year and capitalized the interest; in short, he was +incapable of making a woman unhappy. This last remark had enormous +weight in the scales. Vervelle's friends now heard of nothing but the +celebrated painter Fougeres. + +The day on which Fougeres began the portrait of Mademoiselle Virginie, +he was virtually son-in-law to the Vervelle family. The three Vervelles +bloomed out in this studio, which they were now accustomed to consider +as one of their residences; there was to them an inexplicable attraction +in this clean, neat, pretty, and artistic abode. Abyssus abyssum, the +commonplace attracts the commonplace. Toward the end of the sitting the +stairway shook, the door was violently thrust open by Joseph Bridau; he +came like a whirlwind, his hair flying. He showed his grand haggard face +as he looked about him, casting everywhere the lightning of his glance; +then he walked round the whole studio, and returned abruptly to Grassou, +pulling his coat together over the gastric region, and endeavouring, but +in vain, to button it, the button mould having escaped from its capsule +of cloth. + +"Wood is dear," he said to Grassou. + +"Ah!" + +"The British are after me" (slang term for creditors) "Gracious! do you +paint such things as that?" + +"Hold your tongue!" + +"Ah! to be sure, yes." + +The Vervelle family, extremely shocked by this extraordinary apparition, +passed from its ordinary red to a cherry-red, two shades deeper. + +"Brings in, hey?" continued Joseph. "Any shot in your locker?" + +"How much do you want?" + +"Five hundred. I've got one of those bull-dog dealers after me, and if +the fellow once gets his teeth in he won't let go while there's a bit of +me left. What a crew!" + +"I'll write you a line for my notary." + +"Have you got a notary?" + +"Yes." + +"That explains to me why you still make cheeks with pink tones like a +perfumer's sign." + +Grassou could not help coloring, for Virginie was sitting. + +"Take Nature as you find her," said the great painter, going on with his +lecture. "Mademoiselle is red-haired. Well, is that a sin? All things +are magnificent in painting. Put some vermillion on your palette, and +warm up those cheeks; touch in those little brown spots; come, butter it +well in. Do you pretend to have more sense than Nature?" + +"Look here," said Fougeres, "take my place while I go and write that +note." + +Vervelle rolled to the table and whispered in Grassou's ear:-- + +"Won't that country lout spoilt it?" + +"If he would only paint the portrait of your Virginie it would be worth +a thousand times more than mine," replied Fougeres, vehemently. + +Hearing that reply the bourgeois beat a quiet retreat to his wife, who +was stupefied by the invasion of this ferocious animal, and very uneasy +at his co-operation in her daughter's portrait. + +"Here, follow these indications," said Bridau, returning the palette, +and taking the note. "I won't thank you. I can go back now to d'Arthez' +chateau, where I am doing a dining-room, and Leon de Lora the tops of +the doors--masterpieces! Come and see us." + +And off he went without taking leave, having had enough of looking at +Virginie. + +"Who is that man?" asked Madame Vervelle. + +"A great artist," answered Grassou. + +There was silence for a moment. + +"Are you quite sure," said Virginie, "that he has done no harm to my +portrait? He frightened me." + +"He has only done it good," replied Grassou. + +"Well, if he is a great artist, I prefer a great artist like you," said +Madame Vervelle. + +The ways of genius had ruffled up these orderly bourgeois. + +The phase of autumn so pleasantly named "Saint Martin's summer" was +just beginning. With the timidity of a neophyte in presence of a man of +genius, Vervelle risked giving Fougeres an invitation to come out to +his country-house on the following Sunday. He knew, he said, how little +attraction a plain bourgeois family could offer to an artist. + +"You artists," he continued, "want emotions, great scenes, and witty +talk; but you'll find good wines, and I rely on my collection of +pictures to compensate an artist like you for the bore of dining with +mere merchants." + +This form of idolatry, which stroked his innocent self-love, was +charming to our poor Pierre Grassou, so little accustomed to such +compliments. The honest artist, that atrocious mediocrity, that heart +of gold, that loyal soul, that stupid draughtsman, that worthy fellow, +decorated by royalty itself with the Legion of honor, put himself under +arms to go out to Ville d'Avray and enjoy the last fine days of the +year. The painter went modestly by public conveyance, and he could not +but admire the beautiful villa of the bottle-dealer, standing in a park +of five acres at the summit of Ville d'Avray, commanding a noble view +of the landscape. Marry Virginie, and have that beautiful villa some day +for his own! + +He was received by the Vervelles with an enthusiasm, a joy, a +kindliness, a frank bourgeois absurdity which confounded him. It was +indeed a day of triumph. The prospective son-in-law was marched about +the grounds on the nankeen-colored paths, all raked as they should be +for the steps of so great a man. The trees themselves looked brushed and +combed, and the lawns had just been mown. The pure country air wafted +to the nostrils a most enticing smell of cooking. All things about the +mansion seemed to say: + +"We have a great artist among us." + +Little old Vervelle himself rolled like an apple through his park, the +daughter meandered like an eel, the mother followed with dignified step. +These three beings never let go for one moment of Pierre Grassou +for seven hours. After dinner, the length of which equalled its +magnificence, Monsieur and Madame Vervelle reached the moment of their +grand theatrical effect,--the opening of the picture gallery illuminated +by lamps, the reflections of which were managed with the utmost care. +Three neighbours, also retired merchants, an old uncle (from whom were +expectations), an elderly Demoiselle Vervelle, and a number of other +guests invited to be present at this ovation to a great artist followed +Grassou into the picture gallery, all curious to hear his opinion of the +famous collection of pere Vervelle, who was fond of oppressing them with +the fabulous value of his paintings. The bottle-merchant seemed to have +the idea of competing with King Louis-Philippe and the galleries of +Versailles. + +The pictures, magnificently framed, each bore labels on which was read +in black letters on a gold ground: + + Rubens + Dance of fauns and nymphs + + Rembrandt + Interior of a dissecting room. The physician van Tromp + instructing his pupils. + +In all, there were one hundred and fifty pictures, varnished and dusted. +Some were covered with green baize curtains which were not undrawn in +presence of young ladies. + +Pierre Grassou stood with arms pendent, gaping mouth, and no word upon +his lips as he recognized half his own pictures in these works of art. +He was Rubens, he was Rembrandt, Mieris, Metzu, Paul Potter, Gerard +Douw! He was twenty great masters all by himself. + +"What is the matter? You've turned pale!" + +"Daughter, a glass of water! quick!" cried Madame Vervelle. The painter +took pere Vervelle by the button of his coat and led him to a corner on +pretence of looking at a Murillo. Spanish pictures were then the rage. + +"You bought your pictures from Elie Magus?" + +"Yes, all originals." + +"Between ourselves, tell me what he made you pay for those I shall point +out to you." + +Together they walked round the gallery. The guests were amazed at the +gravity in which the artist proceeded, in company with the host, to +examine each picture. + +"Three thousand francs," said Vervelle in a whisper, as they reached the +last, "but I tell everybody forty thousand." + +"Forty thousand for a Titian!" said the artist, aloud. "Why, it is +nothing at all!" + +"Didn't I tell you," said Vervelle, "that I had three hundred thousand +francs' worth of pictures?" + +"I painted those pictures," said Pierre Grassou in Vervelle's ear, "and +I sold them one by one to Elie Magus for less than ten thousand francs +the whole lot." + +"Prove it to me," said the bottle-dealer, "and I double my daughter's +'dot,' for if it is so, you are Rubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Gerard Douw!" + +"And Magus is a famous picture-dealer!" said the painter, who now saw +the meaning of the misty and aged look imparted to his pictures in +Elie's shop, and the utility of the subjects the picture-dealer had +required of him. + +Far from losing the esteem of his admiring bottle-merchant, Monsieur +de Fougeres (for so the family persisted in calling Pierre Grassou) +advanced so much that when the portraits were finished he presented them +gratuitously to his father-in-law, his mother-in-law and his wife. + +At the present day, Pierre Grassou, who never misses exhibiting at the +Salon, passes in bourgeois regions for a fine portrait-painter. He earns +some twenty thousand francs a year and spoils a thousand francs' worth +of canvas. His wife has six thousand francs a year in dowry, and he +lives with his father-in-law. The Vervelles and the Grassous, who agree +delightfully, keep a carriage, and are the happiest people on earth. +Pierre Grassou never emerges from the bourgeois circle, in which he +is considered one of the greatest artists of the period. Not a family +portrait is painted between the barrier du Trone and the rue du Temple +that is not done by this great painter; none of them costs less than +five hundred francs. The great reason which the bourgeois families have +for employing him is this:-- + +"Say what you will of him, he lays by twenty thousand francs a year with +his notary." + +As Grassou took a creditable part on the occasion of the riots of May +12th he was appointed an officer of the Legion of honor. He is a major +in the National Guard. The Museum of Versailles felt it incumbent to +order a battle-piece of so excellent a citizen, who thereupon walked +about Paris to meet his old comrades and have the happiness of saying to +them:-- + +"The King has given me an order for the Museum of Versailles." + +Madame de Fougeres adores her husband, to whom she has presented two +children. This painter, a good father and a good husband, is unable to +eradicate from his heart a fatal thought, namely, that artists laugh at +his work; that his name is a term of contempt in the studios; and that +the feuilletons take no notice of his pictures. But he still works on; +he aims for the Academy, where, undoubtedly, he will enter. And--oh! +vengeance which dilates his heart!--he buys the pictures of celebrated +artists who are pinched for means, and he substitutes these true works +of arts that are not his own for the wretched daubs in the collection at +Ville d'Avray. + +There are many mediocrities more aggressive and more mischievous than +that of Pierre Grassou, who is, moreover, anonymously benevolent and +truly obliging. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Bridau, Joseph + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Another Study of Woman + Letters of Two Brides + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + + Cardot (Parisian notary) + The Muse of the Department + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + Grassou, Pierre + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Betty + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + Lora, Leon de + The Unconscious Humorists + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Start in Life + Honorine + Cousin Betty + Beatrix + + Magus, Elie + The Vendetta + A Marriage Settlement + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + + Schinner, Hippolyte + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Start in Life + Albert Savarus + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + The Imaginary Mistress + The Unconscious Humorists + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Pierre Grassou, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PIERRE GRASSOU *** + +***** This file should be named 1230.txt or 1230.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/3/1230/ + +Produced by John Bickers and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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