The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-13
HOW GEORGE SAND LOOKED.
A Little Woman with n Sphinx-Like
Face and n Gentle Manner.

Madame Blanc, in January Century.
In the month of May, 1862 l was at last
in person. She had let us know that she
would come to spend a day in Paris. and
that she would expect us; 1t was .o on a
that | set my foot in the house at NO. 8
Rue Racine which she occupied on the oc-
casions of her somewhat infrequent trips 10
Paris. The date has ever remained MEM
orable one for me- / can see once more the
plain little staircase, the small apartment;
the intelligent, sickly-looking and bald head
of Manceau, the engraver, who welcomed
us at the very threshold, and then in
room, composed as it was of two rooms
made into one by the removal of a parti-
ton. that little stoutish woman with a
smooth. olive-like complexion, with wavy
hair SparSely streaked with silver threads,
and whose exceedingly simple black toilet
modestly disobeyed the latest edicts of
fashion. She Sprang up from the sofa
whereon she was sitting for the purpose of
extending a welcome to my stepfather and
me.
Without taking into consideration the por-
trait of George Sand ''fit for a Book of
Beauty" wherein Carpenter has repre-
scented her as belle Italienne," with
pomegranate flowers in her curls there eX
list three faithful and truly characteristic
counterfeit presentiments OF the woman SO
well described by BalZac in "BeatriX."
One of these. by Calamatta, shows her as a
slender person, with an almost hieratic
head-gear, which emphasizes her Sphinx
days when one of her admirers said that
she looked like tiny creole, supple as
reed; while on the other hand, one of
her detractors contended that she was as
thin as a lath, and black a mole
The second portrait-of all the most in
tereSting-leave5 one in doubt to her
sex, and exhibits physiognomy than
which one more pathetic, or more stamped
with suffering, cannot be imagined. 1t
would seem that Delacroix. having come
unawares upon Leila" during one of her
moments of despair, on the occasion of
some great crisis of passion, sought to
preserve her image in his master
sketch of that pale face which energies from
a masculine redingote and an unooSened
cravat, as the very eXpreSSion-the most
striking expression, the never-to-be-forgot-
ten expreSSion-of the feverish times of the
romantic period. Couture was TO follow,
and to immortaliZe the epoch of calmness
corresponding with the ripe age of Mime.
Sand. He has shown her to us full of dig
nifty; her powerful forehead is Swallowed
with deep thought; her look reveals deep
and serene melancholy; her hair, of which
she always possessed a mass, reaches in
heavy bands down to her cheeks, and acts
as a frame for her long oval face. The
relaxation consequent upon age Is shown
at the corners of her mouth, which droops
somewhat; all the other features have kept
their noble regularity.
When / saw her the first time Nine. SAND
looked like Couture's picture of her. But
did not there and then notice this. / merely
gentleness which detached itself from her
as she put out her two hands to me and
kissed me, with a word Of welcome spoken
in an information deeper and more sonorous
than that which is generally characteristic
of the French voice.