I was down by the Quais of old Paris, close to the Pont des Aveugles, drawing the Parisian workman as he took his midday rest. The Quais had not yet got as strait-laced as they are now, and the river flowed its pleasant course without much police supervision1. There was the loveliest of buildings, the Louvre, but it had not made more than a start towards the Tuileries, with which it was in but a few years to join stones.
I was often down there sketching3, and I always found willing models amongst the friendly natives in blouses. The Parisian has an ever-varying way of asking you to take his likeness4. "Tirez ma binette," "Fixez moi cette frimousse," or, "Relevez moi le plan de mon image," are amongst those I recollect5. "Draw my mug," we might say, although translation does not go far to render that sort of colloquialism6.—"Fix my phiz," and "Just you give me the map of my image."
I never accepted coppers7 on the occasions when I presented my models with a sketch2, but such ready-money payment was often proffered8. It was not till a man had insisted on my accompanying him to his home with a view to artistic9 business, that I was led to accept my first commission. He lived near the Temple, quite a little distance from the Quai Voltaire, and as we went along, my companion became very communicative. He began about himself, then gave me a bird's-eye view of the family history, and soon came to "Ma mère," a theme he stuck to as only a Frenchman can. "She was," he said, "une ma?tresse femme," and he would just like to see the man "qui pourrait lui tirer une carotte" (who could extract a carrot from her). This was not an allusion10 to the fruit and vegetable shop she kept, but meant that she was not an easy one to get over in money matters. I found the old lady as my friend had described her. She was stout11 and determined12, and she kept her money jingling13 in the two or three capacious pockets of her apron14. She could see I was an artist; why, she could recognise one within a radius15 of a league; and if I would draw her the portraits of her two granddaughters for five francs, I might set to work at once; they both had the eyes of her family, the Roufflards,—not a trace of the Tusserand look—an advantage I was not to overlook. The girls were about fourteen or fifteen, and I thought I could make rather a telling picture of the two heads together in medallion shape. But the old lady was after me at once. She didn't believe in pinching and cheeseparing, and didn't want the thing rounded off in any of those circular frames. "No," she said. "Allez-y franchement; you just draw them as they are, hands and feet and all, comme qui dirait: there they are, those two girls, les fillettes à la mère Tusserand."
To this I answered that we hadn't bargained for all that, and I was right from a strictly16 professional point of view, but I wouldn't have lost the five francs for the world, and I daresay she guessed as much, and stuck to her guns. She, as an old materfamilias, knew that people were not born in bust17 shape; then why should they be thus represented? She always gave good measure, and if she didn't, her customers would soon keep her up to the mark; so why shouldn't she have her money's worth? I felt that I ought to insist on better terms, if only for the dignity of my profession, but I was no match for the old lady, so I started work on her conditions, only, to save appearances, bargaining for a plentiful18 supply of reineclaudes during the sittings.
A sort of staircase, that had just missed being a ladder, led up in a straight line to the room that was to serve as a studio. A bed of imposing19 dimensions took up the greater part of the room; the bedstead of polished mahogany was an old-fashioned structure, that you could see at once had been handed down from one generation of fruiterers to another; similarly suggestive was a queer old roccoco looking-glass, and a faded portrait of a tomcat sitting on a middle-aged20 spinster's lap. "Who are you, young man?" these worthy21 relics22 seemed to say; "have you got a pedigree?"
The latest offshoots from the genealogical tree of the Roufflard-Tusserand family had to be enthroned on the bed. I could otherwise not get sufficiently23 far away from them to overlook my group. It was desired that their arms should be interlaced with a view to emphasising their sisterly affection, and this gave rise to a new difficulty as to the presentment of one of the hands, which, being in perspective, did not show the full complement24 of fingers. When Madame Tusserand came to inspect my work, she particularly insisted that no part of the thumb should be concealed25. She had noticed such imperfections in other pictures, and had always looked upon them as instances of the artful way in which painters sought to scamp their work. But here I struck. I swore by the holy Raphael that I could and would not alter it, and gave the old lady a lecture on the glorious Madonnas, who, even with incomplete thumbs, had been the means of regenerating26 the world. She was so pleased with the mention of the Madonna, and more especially with that part of my argument which she did not understand, that she gave in, and so perspective scored a victory.
The two girls, my models, were neat little types of the bourgeois27 class. I did not think much of them or the type; in fact I thought the generality of Parisian girls plain; but experienced friends told me I knew nothing about it, and taught me that if I wanted to judge of a woman (that unripe28 fruit, a girl, to be sure was not worth mentioning), I must study not her face or her figure, but her general appearance and one or two essential parts of her toilette. "What is the use of features," they asked, "to a woman who can't dress, or who is gantée and chaussée as if she revenait de l'autre monde." Which other world they meant, and how they wear their gloves and shoes there, they didn't explain. "And why should you give undue29 importance," they wound up, "to beauty where there is the tournure to observe and the chic30. No, mon cher, if you want to form a correct estimate of a woman, study her ankles and her bottines."
Whilst I was taking stock of my models, and arriving at the conclusion that they were plain, pert, and precocious31, they had evidently lost no time in deciding that I was green, and that it would take a good deal of teaching to give me the more attractive tinges32 of ripeness. They told me all about the Bouzibon, a familiar name by which they designated their favourite Bal de Barrière. They took it for granted I couldn't dance, but I might come and learn there next Sunday evening. It was a most respectable place, and nothing was ever lost or stolen there. La mère Bouze was a widow; to be sure I had noticed that elegant place in the Faubourg St. Denis, the fried-fish shop; well, that had originally been started by the late Monsieur Bouze years ago.
In return I told them my old yarn33 about Prince Poniatowski being drowned in the river Pleisse, just at the bottom of our garden in Leipsic; but I let out the point too quickly, and once they knew the Prince was drowned, they did not care for the rest. They behaved very well on the whole, and, as far as I am aware, did not make ugly faces at me when I was looking the other way. I am sure they did not like me though; their fancy men were two gar?ons coiffeurs in a barber's shop close by, and so I hadn't a fair start.
That was my first experience as a portrait-painter. From that day to this I have truly loved my profession, undeterred by the fact that the course of true love does not always run smooth. At any rate that five-franc piece which Madame Roufflard-Tusserand took from the depths of her apron pocket and handed to me, gave me more satisfaction than many a "Pay to F. Moscheles, Esq.," that has since followed.
I wonder whether my drawing still exists, and, if so, whether it is going down as an heirloom from generation to generation with the bedstead, the looking-glass, and the middle-aged tomcat lady.
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1
supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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2
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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3
sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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4
likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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5
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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6
colloquialism
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| n.俗话，白话，口语 | |
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7
coppers
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| 铜( copper的名词复数 )； 铜币 | |
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8
proffered
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| v.提供，贡献，提出( proffer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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10
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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12
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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13
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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14
apron
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| n.围裙；工作裙 | |
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15
radius
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| n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限 | |
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16
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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17
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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18
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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19
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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20
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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21
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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22
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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23
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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24
complement
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| n.补足物，船上的定员；补语；vt.补充，补足 | |
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25
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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26
regenerating
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| v.新生，再生( regenerate的现在分词 )；正反馈 | |
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27
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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28
unripe
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| adj.未成熟的；n.未成熟 | |
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29
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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30
chic
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| n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的 | |
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31
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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32
tinges
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| n.细微的色彩，一丝痕迹( tinge的名词复数 ) | |
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33
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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