Marie Dead

I finished the 700 odd pages of Marie Bashkirtseff's Journals today. I realized I've been reading this for two months now. She died at 25 of TB. Her last hanging (painting) at the spring salon in Paris got her into Category 3- she was hoping for 2 (The 2s were hung at eye level.) No medal. The newspapers loved her and publishers came for permission to have etchings done after (copying) the painting so they could reprint them. There were a lot of these requests and write ups in the papers. There were few women painters then. Her diary describes how she went to the display and sat before her own painting in hopes she could hear what people said about it. It was signed M Bashkirtseff, so most believed it was a young male painter.

She was friends with Jules Bastien-Lepage who painted this

Its Joan of Arc hearing the voices for the first time.

He was about 10 years older and had received medals at the salons in Paris and she thought he painted like an angel. He had been sick for a long time (probably stomach cancer) and when Marie could no longer visit him on his death bed, he had himself carried to to her so they could talk about art. He died shortly after she did.

Sad sad sad. If you have a couple of months, its a real thing. Especially if you have daughters or are a brilliant daughter. Its started when she's about 14 or so. She knew 4 or 5 languages at twenty. She was reading War & Peace when she died.