Madame Herbelin: A Miniaturist of the Second Empire
Young people of my generation
who have only known Mme Herbelin in her secluded, charming and
discreet old age, could never imagine, because of the extent to
which she has preferred to cast a melancholy veil over her
brilliant past, that this old lady, so lively, so gentle, so
unaffected, had taken part in the most sumptuous life, the most
brilliant society of the July monarchy and the Second Empire.
They would have never discovered from the lady herself that she
had been one of the most accomplished and original painters of
the era - because she was profoundly modest. In the end this
modesty had made her appear as a sad, almost anxious character:
she seemed to doubt in her final years the value of those
miniatures which, however, remain not only as documents of the
first order of an already far distant age, but also amongst the
most seductive and the most exquisite examples of a difficult and
delightful art. A portrait such as that of Mme Andryane, which is
owned by the Luxembourg museum, is in no way inferior to the most
beautiful miniatures of Mme de Mirbel1
and Isabey2; and for our part
we acknowledge that we enjoy it as a most tasteful composition,
in its restrained vigour, in its unexpected and charming
colouring.
Any of our readers who have not visited prince
d'Essling's collection will at least be familiar, through the
reproductions that have been made of them (notably those that
illustrate M. Armand Dayot's book on the Second Empire), with the
famous miniatures by Mme Herbelin which depict Her Imperial
Highness Eugénie and the Imperial Prince. We could also cite the
portraits of Isabey, Eugène Délacroix, Rossini, Guizot, Rosa
Bonheur, Dumas the Elder and Dumas the Younger. Before becoming
her models all these prominent personalities of the day were
regular guests at her salon. Alongside these one could also have
seen Merimée, Guizot, Thiers, Émile Augier, Eugène Lami,
Hébert, Gounod, Baudry there. If one succeeded in making Mme
Herbelin talk about the distinguished men of genius, who loved to
meet at her house, her conversation became instructive and
piquant like reading authentic memoirs, memoirs which would have
a remarkable quality in that the author would tell us a great
deal about others, yet never talk about herself. Moreover her
memories dated back even further than the generation of which she
would remain the faithful and charming painter. Daughter of Baron
Habert, who had been a volunteer in 1792, lieutenant-general in
1811 and governor of Barcelona during the Spanish campaign, she
had brought back from the very fountain-head the still living
tales from that imperial age in which her father had played no
little part. She herself was born in 1818 in Brunoy. Her first
debuts had been brilliant and rapid. At the age of thirty she was
awarded the grand medal of the Universal Exhibition, alongside
Rosa Bonheur. She had preserved a charming memory of the
"Award Winners' Dinner" which was given that day at
Saint-Cloud by the Emperor on the 2nd of August 1853. For many
years she exhibited regularly at the Salon, always with great
success.
Then the time for her retirement called to her,
and she liked to spend long hours behind her casement windows
which looked out over the lilacs in her garden, still, silent and
expressive, like one of those charming old miniatures to which
she put her name and which we "love to look at in their oval
frames". But she had, to adorn her long old age, a subject
of which she was justly proud: her two nieces, near to whom she
had gone to live in her retirement, who she cherished and cared
for until her final hours as if they had been her daughters, and
who, in fact, were none other than Mme Madeleine Lemaire and Mlle
Suzette Lemaire.
Thus she was able to see, in younger hands, the
torch of art transmitted and protected with incomparable
brilliance.
Mme Madeleine Lemaire's fame and Mlle Suzette
Lemaire's rare and exquisite reputation filled her final years
with sweetness and pride. She had a profound admiration for them
which has been confirmed over the years by the public and by
connoisseurs alike.
First published in La Chronique des arts et de la curiosité, 23 April 1904.
1. Lizinka-Aimée-Zoé de Mirbel (1796 - 1849) French miniaturist.
2. Jean Baptiste Isabey (1767 - 1855) French painter.