New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-19
LIFE IN PARIS.
LETTER FROM ARsENE noUsSAYE.


TIE poy,NCE OF A sERvANT-GIGL'S PORTRAIT
NJ uoUssAYr's VENETIAN FErE-A TRUCE OF
POLITICS IN SOCIETY.
IFRoM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNE
PARIS Feb. 2l.-Everybody IN Paris KNOWS TAO
lady who goes by the name of Madame L hreeS'i''
This is her pscudonym, her mask her SYMBOL enc
is an adventures who never crosses the huoicon
because she still believes in duty; but she runs an
sorts of risks, believing that what you can III W
ton" and we call pirtait amour is not IN 'ne US
DAMAGING to feminine virtue. This is question:
worthy of examination. .,
Let us first describe Madame 1hrecstars. IL INC
n,astic in woman reveals her destiny, it is certay
in Madame Threestars that we find the mission %
beauty toward love. Her form is o harmony Va Ho,
character. Every thing in her IS pleasure anu
s;n;l;tude She has the two-fOld possession Vi hcI
strength and her beauty. This combination i'is''
her far above other women who DO hot enJoJ the
continually renewed charm OF expression. hoi
beautv has the movement OF q soul ana the I'M
inability of statue. When she walks an Invisible
world follows her: her shoulders, her hands, her
limbs her supple waist continue the loving
svmpbories of her face Her dress, her shawl con-
ceal nothing of her penetrable and lndlsSoiuDie
charm. Her bust is noble and fine as a work of art
Her feet are little like those of Qneon Bertha. BUS
ono needs not be perfect to be human, and especially
to be inhuman. which she will probably be for
long tmo TO come Her feet then are large. but they
form pedestal which aflrms all the decacy OF her
form. all tho power of the womanly statue
She thinks herself bameless because she has as
vct committed only little sins. You find in her the
audacity of page She is thus bold because SIZE
walks in the company of her conscience II some
day-do not forget this trait of character-yOu
shond see her tmid and reserved it is because she
will have become like 81 many others, hardened
SINNER. In the meanwhile she goes everywhere.
She is adored by everybody because she loves no
body.
Apropos of her. return to the question of parJat
amour. or Irritation. There are grave philosophers
who world exclude these two words from the Die
tionary Of the Academy. under pretext that the
Way of Love Of which St. Augustine speaks, leads
to DAnteS hell of Passions. These serious phlloso-
piers are wrong. We do right to brighten life
occasionally with smiles and sunbcams. The Way
of Love leads generally TO marriage As to those
who get urSet on the way, so much the worse Tor
them, but examples are necessary. 1t is certainly
no great crime 10 lDger little by the green way
side to pluck the Wild flowers, TO make no5egays OF
forget.me-not. in one word, tn waste a few happy
hours. Wasted time, is it not time ganedf
Madame Threestars has asiSter-n-aw who is very
devout. They bear the name in society, having
marr1ed brothers, with the difference that one Is
ter who is the deyout one is not quite all she might
SEEM She goes TO confessional frequently and 1t Is
reasonable TO suppose she has good deal to confess
1t is rumored very quietly that she has gone some
what too fl1-to find material for confession. DO
YOU know what the result of this viii be in the out
side world when this httle scandal begins 10 DO
whispered! The only one mentioned VIII be Mad
anne la Comtcsse who has nothing to do with 1t, but
whose name already flmOls for her coGuetries, viii
attract to her the whispers circulating about her
sister-in-laws adventure. From this you may draw
your own moral for or against Irritation. hich Is
worth most in the world. the approval OF your own
conscience of public opinion I
Why should | not talk TO you here about two
painters of nature who have at last attained their
apotheoscs-Miret and Chntrenn9 1t is because
they are dead Of course 1t is always in France.
The aurcole never shines bat over the grave. As
long as a man is alive they seem afraid to give bin
bis crown. No one cares for his poverty, for Chin
tIeul and MIct may al most be sand to have
starved Dying OF persistent toll with poverty
always on the thrcshold-is dis not dying of hun
CERT You probably have in Ncw-YOrk pictures OF
;. these admirable artists who both understood ma
ture the pOeticaily, the other tiuthiuily, bu
u both with The profound sentiment Of sincere mas
ters. They did not play VITA the surface like thoS
who seek Only for effects. They looked for ,he sou
love in tho impulse when God mas gwen in creating
the world. 1t is the universal love. fruitful ant
holy perpctua:inc the mystery Of tie infinite.
Yes as a critic has said life was hard to Chintreui
as to Miiet but harder still to the former, for hC
never felt tie recompense o. TeHOwn. Death is ter
fiblc to those who feel themselves scarcely arrived
at Che maturity Of their talents. But after ALL The
recompcnsc of those who moved by a passion fol
the beautiful does not lie in praise; it is in then
efforts to draw the ideal which they pursue
Where would YOU find one among the most unhappy
Of them who would change fItes with RothSchlld1
Chintreuil had the faith Of apostle. To come
nearer to nature he made himself prinitire Like tbt
English pre-Raphaelites. OF course when he came
into The world Of art with new manner, he wa
not understood so fixed in us is the bad habit Of
not changing our habits. Yet who had ever diScov
cred as lac had the rain and the playing together
in a universal harmony of contrastsf Paul de st
Victor has well described-but too late-this charm
ing painter "Dawns and twilichts storms and mists
pIairies and forests, river sides and the heart Of
groves, parks and gardens, plains specked with
crows, flowing waters where fawDs come to drink,
heather andh Owering broom. beaches and open seas
rocks and cliffs, the whole poem of nature is here
intoncd IN stanzas often incomplete, often merely
sketched but each with its melancholy or
charm It's note grave or tender its impression win
ming and sincere"
Chin.reuil sought rather the musical than the
picturesque sensation, because he arrived at nature
through emotion rather than through admiration.
lie wished to her but at melancholy
hours, i'll the twilight before a storm. His sky is
never i'll fuI light. lie loved clouds. as if they re-
vealed the thought of nature. Poor Mllet. who has
just died. loved nature In any guse, so long there
were peasants in the scene. He painted morning,
noon, or evening, whatever the state of the Sky
resolved to . the truth and paint it.