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Authors: Sherwood Smith
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happy to display the sumptuous gowns they made for Madame
Bonaparte, as they deemed it good for business. They did not know that
Parrette, with her rigorous eye, meticulously observed the seams and the drape,
as well as the deceptively simple curves and dips of the horizontal bodice
contrasted with the pure, slim line of skirts.
She took these observations home, talked to Madame about her
ideas, and was advanced a sum against expected gifts, with which to buy fabrics
and trim. Parrette was no less enthusiastic than Anna as she got to work.
o0o
Madame de Pipelet loved the theater, and maintained boxes
at the three main venues. It was here that Anna saw the latest plays and
operas. When the First Consul and his wife attended the theater, the entire
crowd took note.
So did Anna. But she scarcely glanced at the thin man in the
blue and white uniform; her attention was all on Bonaparte’s wife. How
beautifully she moved! How beautiful she was, seen across the vast width of the
theater!
A great commotion brought Madame’s party to a standstill in
the lobby of the Théâtre-Français one night. Here, Anna glimpsed the famous
woman up close. She was quite shocked to discover that Josephine was old, forty
at least!
Anna stared as Madame Bonaparte turned her head, a quick,
graceful movement, and reached to touch the top of the First Consul’s hand as
she spoke. Her face betrayed the lines of age, and she pursed her mouth in the
way people did who wished to hide their teeth, but even so, especially as Anna
gazed at her straight back, at the beautifully shaped head framed by soft dark
curls, she understood what Lady Hamilton had said once after her attitudes:
“The pose is easy, but getting to it, ah, that’s when you must catch their
eye!”
In the carriage ride back to Madame de Pipelet’s, Anna
consciously tried to set her head at Josephine’s angle, to move her hands and
arms the same way. The muscles of her arms felt different, and she remembered
the childhood lessons in dancing that had been given the palace children. “That
is what I need,” she stated to the lurching canvas wall of the equipage.
“What is your need, child?” Madame asked, breaking off her
conversation.
“The First Consul’s wife. I wish to learn to move the way
she does.”
“Ah!” Madame exclaimed, nodding in approval. “If you can
succeed in learning that , you will be
elegant even when you are an old woman. But how does one go about it? Perhaps
it is a gift of nature.”
Anna had to admit that that might be true. Yet there was the
evidence of her arms and back muscles. Only did she really look different?
She kept that to herself, as she had other things to think
about. Madame one morning presented to Anna the astonishing news that she was
very, very lucky: she had been granted an opportunity to audition at the famous
Lyri-Comique.
“But is that not earning a living as a common performer?”
Anna asked.
Madame de Pipelet was going to return a tart answer, but she
knew Anna well by then, and saw no pride or presumption in her face. The girl
was heeding, as best she knew how, the precepts given her by her dead mother.
“Oh no,” Madame said. “Not if you audition as a mere
student. You might appear on stage, but this is how you gain training that is
far superior to anything I can get for you!”
Anna was content.
Like the rest of Paris, the Boulevard du Temple was in the
midst of changes. After 1791, when the controls against the numbers of theaters
had been lifted, the street had proliferated with stages. Anna soon learned
that this was one of the most popular streets in all of Paris.
She stared in amazement at the grand edifices—many in
various states of repair or rebuilding—as Madame’s carriage took her for her
first interview.
She was nervous, her palms damp and her heartbeat fluttering
in her throat, but the moment she walked in and was greeted by the manager, she
began to understand how very lucky she had been.
Bonaparte, as they deemed it good for business. They did not know that
Parrette, with her rigorous eye, meticulously observed the seams and the drape,
as well as the deceptively simple curves and dips of the horizontal bodice
contrasted with the pure, slim line of skirts.
She took these observations home, talked to Madame about her
ideas, and was advanced a sum against expected gifts, with which to buy fabrics
and trim. Parrette was no less enthusiastic than Anna as she got to work.
o0o
Madame de Pipelet loved the theater, and maintained boxes
at the three main venues. It was here that Anna saw the latest plays and
operas. When the First Consul and his wife attended the theater, the entire
crowd took note.
So did Anna. But she scarcely glanced at the thin man in the
blue and white uniform; her attention was all on Bonaparte’s wife. How
beautifully she moved! How beautiful she was, seen across the vast width of the
theater!
A great commotion brought Madame’s party to a standstill in
the lobby of the Théâtre-Français one night. Here, Anna glimpsed the famous
woman up close. She was quite shocked to discover that Josephine was old, forty
at least!
Anna stared as Madame Bonaparte turned her head, a quick,
graceful movement, and reached to touch the top of the First Consul’s hand as
she spoke. Her face betrayed the lines of age, and she pursed her mouth in the
way people did who wished to hide their teeth, but even so, especially as Anna
gazed at her straight back, at the beautifully shaped head framed by soft dark
curls, she understood what Lady Hamilton had said once after her attitudes:
“The pose is easy, but getting to it, ah, that’s when you must catch their
eye!”
In the carriage ride back to Madame de Pipelet’s, Anna
consciously tried to set her head at Josephine’s angle, to move her hands and
arms the same way. The muscles of her arms felt different, and she remembered
the childhood lessons in dancing that had been given the palace children. “That
is what I need,” she stated to the lurching canvas wall of the equipage.
“What is your need, child?” Madame asked, breaking off her
conversation.
“The First Consul’s wife. I wish to learn to move the way
she does.”
“Ah!” Madame exclaimed, nodding in approval. “If you can
succeed in learning that , you will be
elegant even when you are an old woman. But how does one go about it? Perhaps
it is a gift of nature.”
Anna had to admit that that might be true. Yet there was the
evidence of her arms and back muscles. Only did she really look different?
She kept that to herself, as she had other things to think
about. Madame one morning presented to Anna the astonishing news that she was
very, very lucky: she had been granted an opportunity to audition at the famous
Lyri-Comique.
“But is that not earning a living as a common performer?”
Anna asked.
Madame de Pipelet was going to return a tart answer, but she
knew Anna well by then, and saw no pride or presumption in her face. The girl
was heeding, as best she knew how, the precepts given her by her dead mother.
“Oh no,” Madame said. “Not if you audition as a mere
student. You might appear on stage, but this is how you gain training that is
far superior to anything I can get for you!”
Anna was content.
Like the rest of Paris, the Boulevard du Temple was in the
midst of changes. After 1791, when the controls against the numbers of theaters
had been lifted, the street had proliferated with stages. Anna soon learned
that this was one of the most popular streets in all of Paris.
She stared in amazement at the grand edifices—many in
various states of repair or rebuilding—as Madame’s carriage took her for her
first interview.
She was nervous, her palms damp and her heartbeat fluttering
in her throat, but the moment she walked in and was greeted by the manager, she
began to understand how very lucky she had been.
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