THE LOUVRE--PUBLIC GARDENS--LUXEMBOURG PALACE AND GARDENS--THE GOBELINS.
THE LOUVRE.
The subject is hackneyed and old--what can _I_ say about the Louvre
which will be new to the reader? However, to write a book on Paris, and
make no mention of the Louvre, would be like acting the play of Hamlet,
with Hamlet omitted. I make no pretensions to critical skill in
reference to paintings or architecture, I only give the impressions of a
man who loves both when they seem beautiful to him. I am no such art
enthusiast that I love to wander through galleries of naked and sensual
pictures, though they do show great genius. Nor can the glitter and
grandeur of a thousand public buildings hide from my eyes the squalor
and wretchedness of the common people.
I will not give a precise description of the Louvre, but record the
things which struck me most forcibly.
The foreigner by showing his passport is admitted any day into the
Louvre, though certain days are specified for the public to enter, and
upon others the artists of Paris are busy in studying and copying the
works of the masters.
[Illustration: THE LOUVRE.]
It was one of those days, when the Louvre was occupied by the artists,
that I presented my American passport at one of the entrances, and was
politely invited to pass in. My companion was a French artist, who
had kindly offered to guide me over the renowned collection of
paintings. The visit was much pleasanter to me from the fact that no
crowd of visitors was present, and it was a novel sight to behold the
young artists of Paris engaged in their work. I have mentioned in
another part of this book that no pictures of living artists are allowed
a place in the Louvre. The Luxembourg Gallery is the place for all such,
and the Louvre collection is therefore made up of paintings from the
hands of all the old masters. It is for this reason that the Parisian
artists fill the rooms of the Louvre so constantly--either to copy some
gem in the vast collection, or by practice, to catch some of the genius
of the master-hand.
The first picture-room we entered is represented to be the finest for
the exhibition of pictures in the world. Its splendor was really very
great. The pictures in it are of immense size, and they require a strong
and clear light. It is called the Grand Saloon, and is divided by
projecting arcades which are supported by fine marble columns. The
length is one thousand three hundred and twenty-two feet, and the
breadth forty-two feet. The ceilings and the walls are completely
covered by pictures, the number of them being one thousand four hundred.
Those by French masters number three hundred and eighty, by the Flemish
and German five hundred and forty, and by the Italian four hundred and
eighty. The greater part of the collection was made by Napoleon, and
though many of the finest pictures were taken away by the allies in
1815, yet it is still one of the largest collections in the world. To
stand in this room and gaze at leisure upon some of the finest paintings
in the world, was a delight I had never before felt. It is
indescribable, yet it was none the less real. I could not, as my friend
the artist did, point out the peculiar excellences of each, and the
faults, nor compare one with another critically, but I could feel the
same thrill of pleasure which he did, and I found that the picture which
he declared to be the finest, was that before which I delayed longest.
It certainly is no more necessary for a man to be an art-critic to love
pictures, than it is to be a botanist to love flowers. I admit that one
must be a critic, to a degree, to _thoroughly_ appreciate the art of
painting, but that is another thing. The common people in France are
universally fond of pictures, much more so than the English. The
Americans are next to the French in ideality, notwithstanding their
great practicality. The common people of England are far behind those of
America in their fondness for the beautiful--at least I judge so from a
pretty fair experience. America as yet, to be sure, can show few works
of art, but the vast number of enlightened Americans who continually
visit Europe, and many for the purpose of seeing the grand and beautiful
in art, tells the story. The English upper-classes are undoubtedly
well-educated in art, but not the other classes. But I must not digress.
The second room we visited was the _Salle des Bijoux_, and was entirely
occupied by vases, jewels, and rare and costly cups. I was much pleased
with an Arabian basin of splendid workmanship. There were also articles
of toilette given by the ancient republic of Venice to Marie de Medicis,
one casket alone being worth many thousands of dollars.
The next apartment we entered contains copies of Raphael's frescoes in
the Vatican at Rome; but the next room interested me more, for it
contains Grecian statuary and antiquities. The southern part of Italy
and Etruria, Herculaneum and Pompeii, are all represented in the
collection. One striking feature of this hall is, that the ceilings are
covered with paintings of the best artists. One represents Vesuvius
receiving fire from Jupiter to consume Herculaneum and Pompeii; another,
Cybele protecting the two cities from the fires of Vesuvius.
The _Hall du Trone_, which we next visited, contained a great variety of
beautiful pictures. One is a representation of the Genius of Glory
supported by Virtue, with a scroll on which are written the names of the
heroes of France--the warriors, statesmen, and great writers. There are
in this apartment many exquisite vases, and among them four of Sevres
porcelain, and one of Berlin porcelain, a present from the king of
Prussia. There are, also, two very fine Chinese side-boards and
specimens of Chinese sculpture.
We next looked into the _Musee Egyptian_, which contains Egyptian
curiosities, and the ceilings are painted, but, of course, by modern
authors, as they are executed not upon canvas, but upon the hard
ceiling. One of the paintings represents Egypt as being saved by
Joseph--another, and one of the finest of the ceiling decorations in the
Louvre, is by Horace Vernet. It represents Julian II. giving orders to
Michael Angelo, Raphael, and Bramante to construct St. Peters.
The _Galerie Francaise_ is filled with paintings of the French school,
but none of them are by living painters. Many of them are unquestionably
fine specimens of art, but as they were principally portraits of men
more distinguished by their position than by any genius, I was not
interested in the collection.
Very near the French gallery, there is an alcove in which Henry IV. used
often to sleep, and where he at last died. His portrait is now
exhibited in it. In another little recess the suit of armor which Henry
II. wore on the day of his death, is shown to the stranger. It was in
the year 1559. The day was very hot and the king let down his helmet for
fresh air. The royal party were engaged in a tournament, when the
tilting-spear of the count de Montgomerie pierced the king's eye, and
through it his brain, and he died.
The Spanish gallery contains many fine specimens of the works of the
Spanish masters, Velasquez, Murillo, and others.
The Standish Collection is so called, because it was given to Louis
Phillippe in 1838, by an Englishman by the name of Standish. It includes
many first-class paintings, and a bible once owned by Cardinal Ximenes,
now valued at twenty-five thousand francs. Before Louis Phillippe died,
he claimed this collection as his private property. He had no intention
of taking it away, but wished to test his claim to it. It was
acknowledged, and he then bequeathed it to the Louvre.
It is impossible for me in a brief sketch to even mention _all_ the
apartments in the Louvre, and I must pass by many. The upper floor is
devoted to a Marine museum. It contains fourteen rooms, all well-filled
with curiosities. Among them I noticed some excellent models of brigs,
ships, men-of-war, Chinese junks, etc. There is in this suite of rooms a
fine display of American curiosities. It first struck me that Colton's
collection must be before me, but I soon discovered my mistake.
The Louvre contains a spacious museum of antiquities beneath the
painting-galleries. There is also a museum of modern sculpture on the
ground-floor. It contains the finest specimens of French sculpture, as
well as the master-pieces of foreign sculptors. In the first room there
is one of Michael Angelo's best pieces--the Master and his Slave. It is,
indeed, a master-piece. One of Canova's pieces--a Cupid and a
Psyche--thrilled me with its exceeding beauty.
But I must say a few words respecting the building of the Louvre. The
eastern facade is one of the finest specimens of architecture that any
age can boast. The colonnade is composed of twenty-eight Corinthian
columns. There is a gallery behind them in which you may promenade,
looking out upon the streets below. The southern front of the Louvre,
seen from one of the bridges of the river, with its forty Corinthian
pilasters and sculptures, is a magnificent sight.
The building of the Louvre forms a perfect square, and after visiting
the different galleries, the stranger will find that he has completed
the circuit. The gateways are fine and richly ornamented with
sculptures, and the court is a pleasant one. Each side of the building
measures four hundred and eight feet.
In the year 1200, Phillip Augustus used a castle which existed on the
present site of the Louvre, for a state prison. Charles V. made
additions to the building and placed the Royal Library in it. The
present building was begun by Francis I., in 1528, and the southern side
of the Louvre as it now exists was his work. Henry II., Henry IV., and
Louis XIII., successively added to it, and in still later time, Louis
XIV., Louis XV., Charles X., Louis Phillippe, and Napoleon III., have
done the same.
Charles X. stood in one of the windows of the Louvre overlooking the
Seine, and fired upon the poor victims of the massacre of St.
Bartholomew. In July, 1830, the people made a terrible attack upon it,
and it was courageously defended by the Swiss Guards, until everyone
of them perished.
The Louvre is one of the noblest piles in Europe, and as a
painting-gallery, it reflects great credit upon France. I used to
frequent it, yet I must, to be honest, confess that many of its pictures
are too sensual and licentious to suit my taste. Are such pictures as
can be found in the French gallery, pictures which express sensuality
and debauchery, productive of good?
Is it well to look at so much nakedness, even if it be executed with the
highest art? In portions of the Louvre there is altogether too much
nakedness, and I humbly hope that American ladies will never get so
accustomed to such sights that they can stare at them in the presence of
gentlemen without a blush. I now allude to the most licentious pictures
in the collection. I saw French women stop and criticise pictures which
I could not look at, in their presence, at least--pictures which
exhibited the human form in a state of nudity, and at the same time
expressed the most shameful sensuality and portrayed the most licentious
attitudes. I cannot believe a woman of perfectly pure mind can delight
to look at such pictures in a public gallery. But this nakedness is all
of a piece with many other things which characterize French society, and
but shows the corrupt state of the morals of the French people.
[Illustration: JARDIN DES TUILLERIES.]
PUBLIC GARDENS.
The gardens of Paris are almost numberless. Some of them are free, and
others are open only to those who pay an entrance fee. The latter class
is great in numbers, from the aristocratic _Jardin d' Hiver_ down to La
Chaumiere. In the first you meet the fashionable and rich, and in the
last, the students with their grisettes, and the still poorer classes.
But I will not describe this class of gardens in this article.
The Tuileries gardens are perhaps as aristocratic as any in Paris, if
that term can be appropriately applied to a _free_ garden, and they are
certainly among the finest in the world. They are filled with statues
and fountains, trees and flowers. The western part is entirely devoted
to trees, almost as thickly planted as our American forests. The care
which is taken of this grove of trees surprised me, and I think would
any new-world visitor. The trees grow closely to the southern wall of
the gardens, yet do not protrude their branches over the line of the
wall. The sight is a singular one from the banks of the Seine, outside
the walls of the garden, for the whole grove looks exactly as if it had
been _sheared_ like a hedge. The branches have been so cared for and
trimmed, that the side presented is perfectly even and a mass of green.
Still this, though curious, is not beautiful. Trees need to grow
naturally for that. Art cannot surpass nature in this way. The grove is
full of beauty. Walks run every way over it, and the trees are so
trimmed and cultivated that beautiful arches are formed over nearly all
the paths. This constitutes the forest, one of the most singular in
Paris, and it is a novel sight to the stranger. On the north side of the
groves there is a collection of orange trees, and in among them are set
a large quantity of chairs, which are rented by a person in attendance
for two sous an hour. So for two cents, a man can sit and rest himself
in one of the most delicious spots in Paris. This is a peculiar feature
of all the gardens of Paris. No free seats are furnished, but an old
woman is sure to select some shady and enchanting spot whereon to
arrange her chairs, which are for rent. Indeed, there are many places on
the Boulevard where this practice obtains, to the great joy of
numberless tired pedestrians.
In front of the _Tuileries palace_ there is a choice garden of flowers
and plants enclosed by an iron railing. The flowers were in bloom when
last I saw it, and were exceedingly beautiful. Directly in front of this
garden a fine fountain is always playing, and scattered in every
direction is a profusion of statuary. There are some magnificent groups,
but again others are disgusting in their sensuality. There are several
pieces of statuary scattered among the trees of the grove. One of them,
a statue of Venus, is an exquisite conception, and so very pure that I
wondered it should have found a place in a French garden. But not far
from it there were two nude figures which were so shockingly sensual,
and so clearly were intended by the sculptor to be so, that I turned
away half indignant. Yet while I walked in the grove more than one
French lady stopped leisurely to look at them through her glass.
When the weather is warm, the fashionable pedestrians flock to the trees
of the Tuileries gardens, and among its cool recesses sit and talk the
hours away. When the weather is colder and sunshine is desirable, the
grounds immediately in front of the palace are more pleasant, as there
the cold winds come not.
The Luxembourg gardens I have spoken of with some particularity in
another place.
The _Jardin d' Hiver_ is a winter garden, and contains many roofed
hot-houses. The public are admitted by the payment of one franc. There
are occasional displays of flowers and plants.
The _Champs Elysees_ form one of the most delightful promenades in
Paris. They contain no plants or flowers, but are so thickly planted
with trees, that they may be called gardens. It was originally a
promenade for Marie de Medici. It runs along the banks of the Seine,
from the Place de la Concorde to the Triumphal Arch. The length is a
mile and a quarter, the breadth three hundred and seventy-three yards.
All the public fetes take place on these fields. On the right is the
promenade, and on the left under the trees and in open spaces are fairs,
instrumental performances, shows, etc. etc. It is one of the most
dazzling scenes in the night that ever eye beheld. I well remember that
on my first visit to Paris, I wandered out of my hotel and saw the
Champs Elysees in the evening. The sight was almost overpowering. The
whole place was a scene of splendor. The trees and grounds were one
blaze of lamps. Scattered over it were little theaters, concerts in the
open air, every kind of show, coffee-houses, restaurants, and every kind
of amusement. The concerts charge nothing. But if you enter within the
ring you pay for a seat a trifle, and also for your refreshments. Almost
everyone who entered, (it was all in the open air,) bought a glass of
something to drink, and sat down to enjoy it with the music. Fiddlers
and mountebanks abounded in every direction, and beggars were more
numerous if possible than the spectators. But not one _solicited_ alms.
It would jar too coarsely upon the Parisian refinement. A beggar sings,
looks piteously, plays his flageolet or harp, but never _asks_ for
money! The whole scene presented to me was one of the most brilliant I
ever witnessed, and it probably impressed me more from the fact that I
was unprepared for it. I have often since frequented it in the evening,
but never wearied of it.
The _Jardin des Plantes_ is the most beautiful free garden in the world.
It was founded in 1635 by Louis XIII. Buffon was its most celebrated
superintendent. He devoted himself enthusiastically to its cultivation
and development. It was at periods, during the revolutionary times, much
neglected, but it continued to prosper through everything, unlike many
of the other gardens. It consists of a botanical garden with several
large hot-houses and green-houses attached; several galleries with
scientific natural collections; a gallery of anatomy; a menagerie of
living animals; a library of natural history; and lastly, a theater for
public lectures. Everything is open to the people--lectures and
all--and take it altogether, it is the finest and noblest garden in the
world.
The _Jardin des Plantes_ in the summer is one of the favorite resorts of
Parisians, and although I frequented the spot, I never left it without a
wonder that so much is thrown open free to the public. This is a
remarkable feature of Paris and French institutions and public
buildings. If possible, that which the people wish to see they can see
for nothing. Painting-galleries, gardens, churches, and lectures are
open to the crowd. This is in striking contrast with London. There
nothing is free. The stranger pays to go over Westminster Abbey and St.
Paul's. He cannot see anything without paying half a crown for the
sight. To _look_ at a virgin or butler is worth at least a shilling.
[Illustration: JARDIN DES PLANTES.]
The stranger usually enters the _Jardin des Plantes_ by the eastern
gate. The gallery of zoology is seen at the other end of the garden,
while on either hand are beautiful avenues of lime trees. Beyond, on the
right, is the menagerie, and on the left is a large collection of forest
trees. Scattered all around in the open space, are beds containing all
manner of medicinal and other plants from all parts of the earth. This
part of the garden is to the botanist a very interesting spot. The
flowering-shrubs are surrounded by a rail fence, and the level of the
ground is sunk beneath that of other parts of the garden. There is a
special "botanical garden," which is much frequented by students. On
another avenue there are plantations of forest shrubs, and near them a
cafe to accommodate visitors. Then stretching still further on, are new
geological, mineralogical, and botanical galleries, all warmed in winter
and summer, if necessary, by hot water, and capable of receiving the
tallest tropical plants. Between the conservatories there are two
beautiful mounds--one a labyrinth, and the other a collection of
fir-trees. The labyrinth is one of the best and most beautiful I ever
saw, far surpassing the celebrated one at Hampton court. The mound is of
a conical shape, and is completely covered by winding and intricate
paths. The whole is surmounted by a splendid cedar of Lebanon. On the
summit there are also seats covered with a bronze pavilion, and taking
one of them the visitor can look over all the garden portions of Paris,
and several of the villages near Paris. It is an exquisite view, and I
know of no greater pleasure in the hot months than after walking over
the garden to ascend the labyrinth and sit down in the cool shade of the
pavilion, and watch the people wandering over the gardens, Paris, and
the country. The western mound is a nursery of fir-trees, every known
kind being collected there. There is another inclosure entered by a door
at the foot of this mound, which in warm weather contains some of the
most beautiful trees of New Holland, the Cape of Good Hope, Asia Minor,
and the coast of Barbary. The amphitheater is here, also, where all the
lectures are delivered. It will hold twelve hundred students but more
than that number contrive to hear the lectures. In the enclosure there
are twelve thousand different kinds of plants, and at the door stand two
very beautiful Sicilian palms more than twenty-five feet in height.
The menagerie of the garden is one of the finest in the world, and is in
some respects like the menagerie in London, though arranged with more
taste. The cages are scattered over a large inclosure, and it seems like
wandering over a forest and meeting the animals in their native wilds.
After passing beneath the boughs of dark trees, it is startling to look
up and see a Bengal tiger within a few feet of you, though he is caged,
or to walk on further still, and confront a leopard. This part of the
garden is a continual source of amusement to the younger portions of the
community of Paris, to say nothing of the children of larger growth.
The cabinet of comparative anatomy is one of the finest parts of the
garden, and we owe its excellence mainly to the great exertions of
Cuvier. Every department is scientifically arranged, and the whole form,
perhaps, the best collection of anatomical specimens in the world. In
the first room are skeletons of the whale tribe, and many marine
animals; in the next, are skeletons of the human species from every part
of the globe. A suite of eleven rooms is taken up for the anatomy of
birds, fishes, and reptiles. Several rooms are taken up with the
exhibition of the muscles of all animals, including man. Others exhibit
arms and legs; others still, brains and eyes, and the different organs
of the body all arranged together, distinct from the remaining parts of
the frame. In one room there is a singular collection of skulls of men
from all countries, of all ages, and conditions. Celebrated murderers
here are side by side with men of ancient renown.
The gallery of zoology is three hundred and ninety feet in length, and
fronts the east end of the garden. The other galleries are all equally
spacious and well arranged.
The library is composed of works on natural history, and it is an
unrivaled collection. It contains six thousand drawings, thirty thousand
volumes, and fifteen thousand plants. This fine library is free on
certain days to the world.
The good which results from such _free_ exhibitions as that of the
_Jardin des Plantes_ is incalculable. The _people_ become educated,
enlightened to a degree they can never attain, upon the subjects
illustrated, without them. This is one reason why Parisians are
universally intelligent, even to the artisans. The poorer classes can
scarcely help understanding botany, anatomy, zoology, and geology, with
such a garden free of access. This is but a specimen of many like places
in Paris. Lectures upon the sciences and arts are free to all who will
hear, and whoever will may learn.
THE LUXEMBOURG PALACE AND GARDENS.
When France was governed by Louis Phillippe, the Palace Luxembourg was
occupied by the Chamber of Peers, and it is now occupied by the Senate.
It is a fine old building, and the impression it makes upon the stranger
is an agreeable one. There is nothing in its history of particular
interest, though its architecture is ancient.
I was better pleased with the Luxembourg gardens than with the palace.
They are more beautiful than the Tuileries gardens and are much more
democratic. Trees, plants, and flowers seemed to me to abound in them to
a greater extent than in any other garden in Paris. On beautiful days
they are full of women and children. Troops of the latter, beautiful as
the sky which covers them, come to this place and play the long hours of
a summer afternoon away, with their mothers and nurses following them
about or sitting quietly under the shade of the trees, engaged in the
double employment of knitting and watching the frolicsome humors of
their children. I was very fond of going to these gardens in the
afternoon, just to look at the array of mothers and children, and it was
as pretty a sight as can be seen in all Paris. It is a sight which New
York--be it spoken to her shame--does not furnish.
[Illustration: JARDIN ET PALAIS DU LUXEMBOURG.]
In the summer evenings a band of music plays for an hour to a vast
multitude. Four of the finest bands in Paris take turns in playing at
seven o'clock, four evenings in the week, and their music is of the
highest order. Perhaps fifty thousand people are gathered at once, men,
women, and children, to listen to the delicious music and the
gathering in itself is a sight worth seeing. The great majority
promenade slowly around the band, some stand still, and a very few rent
chairs and sit. Nearly all the men smoke, and occasionally a woman does
the same. But the flavor of the tobacco is execrable. What substitute
the French use I know not, but the villainous smells which come from the
cigars smoked by the majority of Frenchmen indicate something very bad.
Cabbage leaves--so extensively used to make cigars with in England--do
not give forth so vile a stench.
I always noticed in the Luxembourg gardens many fine looking men, and
some elegantly dressed and lady-like women, but the majority of the
latter were grisettes, or mistresses. Many students were promenading
with their little temporary wives, not in the least ashamed to make such
a public display of their vices. The women present might be divided into
four classes; the gay but not vicious, students' mistresses, ordinary
strumpets, and the poor but virtuous, by far the majority belonging to
those classes which have a poor reputation. Yet the conduct of those
women was in every respect proper. There were no indecent gestures, and
not a loud word spoken which would have been out of place in a
drawing-room. Not a woman addressed one of the opposite sex.
Directly in front of the Luxembourg palace there is a bower of orange
trees and statues railed off from other portions of the garden. It
presents an extremely beautiful appearance. In front of it there is a
fine basin of water and a fountain. Four nude marble boys support a
central basin, from which the water pours. The ground directly in front
of the palace is lower than it is on either side, and a row of fine
orange trees extends out on either hand from the palace, and flowers of
every description mingle their fragrance with that of the orange
blossoms. Groves of trees extend far to the right and left, and to the
south, there are fine gardens devoted to the cultivation of rare plants
and every variety of fruit trees.
The best thing I know about the Luxembourg palace is, that it has a
gallery of paintings. It formerly was used to exhibit paintings by the
old masters, but now nothing is allowed a place in the Luxembourg
gallery but pictures of living artists. As soon as the artist dies, his
pictures which hang in the Luxembourg, and which have been purchased by
the government, are at once removed to the Louvre, where only paintings
of men now dead are on exhibition.
The collection in the Luxembourg is in many respects a very fine one,
but it has the fault of all the modern French and continental
pictures--there is too much sensuality exhibited upon the canvas. The
school is too voluptuous--too licentious. I can put up with anything not
positively indecent for the sake of art, but I cannot put up with French
pictures. Their nakedness is too disgusting, for it is not relieved by
sentiment, unless of the basest kind. This remark of course does not
apply to all the pictures I saw. Some of them are very fine, especially
those of Delaroche and the war pictures of Horace Vernet. Near the
entrance there is a beautiful group by Delaistre, representing Cupid and
Psyche.
One of the pictures in this gallery haunts me still. It is an
illustration of one of Dante's immortal verses--his visit to the lake of
Brimstone. The poet with a wreath of laurel round his brow stands in the
center of a little boat, while his conductor in the stream propels the
craft with one oar over the boiling and surging sea of hell. His
countenance is filled with mingled astonishment and horror, yet he
preserves his wits and observes very critically all that is about him.
One poor wretch lifts his head from the liquid fire, and fastens his
jaws upon the rim of the boat in his terrible agony, while one of the
attendants of the boat with an oar endeavors to beat him back. On the
other side a ghostly wretch has fastened his long teeth into a
fellow-sufferer. The shades of light and darkness are so mingled that
the effect is very striking. It is the most horrible picture I ever
looked at, and I would much rather sleep in Madame Tassaud's chamber of
horrors, than look at it again. In the next apartment there is a picture
of Christ, which struck me as the best I ever looked at. The divine
sweetness of the human and the grandeur of the God were united with
wonderful skill. The face was half-sorrowful, as if the heart were
filled with thoughts of a sinful, suffering world, and still upon the
brow the very sunshine of heaven rested. The impression which that face
made upon me will never be entirely obliterated, and its effect was far
different from the illustration of Dante. The two pictures, it seemed to
me, teach a useful lesson. It is that men are to be saved through love,
and not through fear. Let men see God's beauty and loveliness, and you
will more surely win them from error than by showing them the horrors of
hell.
The origin of the Luxembourg palace was as follows: about the middle of
the sixteenth century, one Robert de Harley erected a large house in the
middle of the gardens. In 1583 the house was bought and enlarged by the
duke of Luxembourg, and in 1612 Marie de Medicis bought it for ninety
thousand francs, and then commenced the present palace. During the first
year of the revolution it was used for a prison; then for an
assembly-room for the consuls; still later as the chamber for the peers,
and now the French senate meet in it. It contains a large library, but
the people cannot have access to its well-stored shelves. Students can,
however, by making proper application, consult the library.
One evening while walking in the Luxembourg gardens, the band playing
exquisite music, and the crowd promenading to it, I met a friend, an
American, who has resided in Paris for seventeen years. Taking his arm
we fell into the current of people, and soon met a couple of quite
pretty looking ladies arm-in-arm. They were dressed exactly alike and
their looks were very much of the same pattern, and as to their figures,
I certainly could not tell one from the other with their faces turned
away.
"They are sisters," said my friend, "and you will scarcely believe me
when I tell you that I saw them in this very garden ten years ago." I
replied that I could hardly credit his story, for the couple still
looked young, and I could hardly think that so many years ago they would
have been allowed by their anxious mamma to promenade in such a place. I
told my friend so, and a smile overspread his countenance. He then told
me their history. Ten years ago and they were both shop-girls, very
pretty and very fond of the attentions of young men. As shop-girls, they
occasionally found time to come and hear the music in the gardens of an
evening, and cast glances at the young students. Soon they were
student's mistresses. Their paramours were generous and wealthy young
men, and they fared well. For four years they were as faithful,
affectionate, and devoted to the young men as any wives in all France.
They indulged in no gallantries or light conduct with other men, and
among the students were reckoned as fine specimens of the class. Four
happy years passed away, when one morning the poor girls awoke to a sad
change. The collegiate course was through, and the young collegians were
going back to their fathers' mansions in the provinces. Of course the
grisettes could not be taken with them, and the ties of years were
suddenly and rudely to be snapped asunder. At first they were frantic in
their grief. When they entered upon their peculiar relations with the
students, they well knew that this must be the final consummation, but
then it looked a great way off. That they really loved the young men, no
one can doubt. It would not be strange for a little shop-girl to even
adore a talented university student, however insignificant he might be
to other people. To her he is everything that is great and noble. These
girls knew well that they were not wives, but mistresses, yet when the
day of separation came, it was like parting husband and wife. But there
was no use in struggling with fate, and they consoled themselves by
transferring their affections to two more students. Again after a term
of years they were forsaken, until the flower of their youth was gone,
and no one desired to support them as mistresses. Then a downward step
was taken. Nothing but promiscuous prostitution was before them--except
starvation. And still they could not forget their old life, and came
nightly to this public promenade to see the old sights, and possibly
with the hope of drawing some unsophisticated youth into their net.
While my friend repeated their story, the couple frequently passed us,
and I could hardly believe that persons whose deportment was so modest
and correct, could be what he had designated them; but as the twilight
deepened, and we were walking away, I noticed that they were no longer
together, and one had the arm of a man, and was walking, like us, away
from the gardens.
I do not know as I could give the reader a better idea of a great class
of women in Paris, than by relating the brief history of these girls,
and certainly I could not sketch a sadder picture. To the stranger the
social system of France may seem very pleasant and gay, but it is in
reality a sorrowful one. While the mistress is young, she has a kind of
happiness, but when she loses her beauty, then her wretchedness begins.
But I will dwell upon this whole subject more fully in another place.
THE GOBELINS.
One of the interesting places which I visited in Paris, is the famous
Tapestry and Carpet Manufactory in the Rue Mouffetard. The walk is quite
a long one from the Garden of Plants, but the wonders of art and
industry which are shown to the visitor, amply repay for the trouble and
toil in getting to the manufactory.
I first passed through several rooms, upon the walls of which were hung
some of the finest of the tapestries which are finished. I was
astonished to see the perfection to which the art is carried. Some of
the tapestries, were quite as beautiful as some of the paintings in the
Louvre. Each piece was a picture of some spot, scene, or character, and
the workmanship is of such an exquisite kind, that it is extremely
difficult to believe that real paintings of the highest order are not
before you. Yet all the shades and expressions are wrought into the web,
by the hands of the skillful workmen. I visited six of the work-rooms,
where the men were manufacturing the tapestries. It was a wonderful
sight. The workman stands immediately behind the web, and a basket
containing woolen yarn, or a thread of every variety or color, is at his
feet. The design, usually an exquisite picture, stands behind him in a
good light. A drawing of the part of the landscape or figure first to be
made is sketched by pencil upon the web, and with the picture to be
copied constantly in sight, the workman or artist, as he should be
called, works slowly upon his task, glad if in a day he can work into
the tapestry a branch, a hand, or an eye. In some of the work-rooms, the
finest tapestries were being manufactured, and in others only very fine
rugs and carpets.
In 1450 a man by the name of Jean Gobelin acquired considerable property
in the region of Rue Mouffetard by dyeing and making carpets. His sons
carried on the business in his name, and the manufactory was celebrated;
hence the name, Gobelins. Louis XIV. erected it into a royal
manufactory, and it has continued such ever since. Between one and two
hundred men are constantly in the employ of the government, in the
manufactory, and as men of great skill and refined tastes are required,
a good rate of wages is paid. The workmen seemed to be very intelligent,
and were dressed, many of them, at least, like gentlemen. The
tapestries, carpets, &c. &c., which are manufactured at this place, are
intended for the emperor, the palaces, and for other monarchs to whom
they may be presented in the name of the French emperors. They are the
finest specimens of their kind in the world. There is another
manufactory connected with the Gobelins, for dyeing wools, and they are
dyed better than in any other place, or at least none can be purchased
elsewhere so fitted for the wants of the tapestry workers. There is also
a school of design connected with it, and a course of lectures is
delivered by able and accomplished men.
The carpet manufactory is one of the best, and perhaps _the_ best, in
the world. The Parisian carpets are not equal to those manufactured
here. It often takes five and ten years to make a carpet, and the cost
is as high sometimes as thirty thousand dollars. None are ever sold. One
was one made for the Louvre gallery, consisting of seventy-two pieces,
and being over thirteen hundred feet in length.
I have never been more astonished with any exhibition of the fruits of
industry and art, than with the carpets and tapestries in the Rue
Mouffetard. Some of the latter excel in beauty the best pictures in
Europe, and when one reflects that each tint is of wool, worked into the
web by the careful fingers of the workman, that every line, every
muscle, is wrought as distinctly and beautifully as upon canvas, it
excites admiration and wonder. The rooms are open for four Hours two
days in the week, and they were crowded when I was there, and
principally by foreigners.
On my way back, I stopped in the Garden of Plants, and seated myself
upon the benches beneath the shade of the trees. After resting awhile, I
entered a restaurant and ordered dinner, as I could scarcely wait to
return to the hotel, and in Paris, where a bargain is made at so much
per day for hotel charges, including meals, if one is absent at dinner
the proper sum is deducted from the daily charges.
I did not succeed in getting a good dinner for a fair price, which I
always could do at the hotel. It was so poor that a little while after,
I tried a cup of coffee and a roll upon the _Champs Elysees_, which were
delicious enough to make up for the poor dinner.
In front of me there was an orchestra, and some singers, who discoursed
very good music for the benefit of all persons who patronized the
restaurant. A multitude of ladies and gentlemen were ranged under the
trees before them, sipping coffee, wine, or brandy. The sight was a very
gay one, but not uncommon in Paris.
I went one day outside the walls of Paris, and took dinner in a
beautiful spot where the sun was almost entirely excluded by the trees
and shrubs, in gardens attached to a restaurant. I had a capital dinner,
too, for a small price, better than I could have had for double the
money at a London hotel.