***
***
Postcard Story – Marie Joséphine Charlotte du Val d’Ognes (1786–1868) – Marie Denise Villers – 1801 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art
***
Second Granddaughter – 02/23/26
… and when I entered her studio, she looked up at me, and I immediately knew what she was thinking. Then immediately I decided I did not know anything about my granddaughter other than what her eyes said to me – that she wanted to leave.
It was a pleasant day, and to her query, yes, I had taken the carriage. I inquired about the broken window glass, and she said without emotion that the room was stuffy and stale and suffocating. Yes. Her eyes watched me. I moved closer and took the chair opposite, her eyes following me without expression, but I knew my granddaughter and admired her … spirit, her directness, the love she deeply held for me, without any intention of altering her intent for her own life.
I asked what she was sketching and she said plainly, the broken window and the unknown couple on the terrace. They weren’t lovers she said, but polite and proper and boring now to each other, but passion in time will overtake them.
“Ah”, I said, “How do you know this?” And she said, “The same way I know everything. I observe, sketch and I watch. They were the only life I could see from this chair.” And she continued to watch me as I observed the couple on the terrace.
“So,” I said at last, “do you want me to help you gather your possessions and sketchbooks here?” And she responded, “They are already gathered.” And I inquired, “And where will I take you?”
“First out upon the Boulevard for a time in the carriage where I will not speak or look at you, but I will only observe and breathe in the life upon the Boulevard. And then to your mansion, where I will pick a room for myself, and another for my studio, facing north of course for the light, as you knew I would. And I will sketch and paint and go out to the garden to do the same, where Jacques will plant something special for me here, and move this to there, and bring me the first ripest fruits of summer, washed and cleaned and bright, before he brings some to you. And then in the evening, I will eat at your table as when I was younger. And we will still sit together in the evening and read and talk, and I will listen again to the stories you told me of your youth and grand-mere before she died and eat the wonderful pastries and iced cupcakes that Charlotte bakes. And later, I will invade her kitchen, and we will have tea together, with Michelle and Henri if they are able to sit for a moment, which I know will always be proper and perfectly acceptable to you, and I will tell them of my day. Is this not nice?”
And I said of course, for this was what she had said to me with her eyes when I entered her studio … excusez-moi, when I entered my granddaughter’s now very previous studio, oui.
RESOURCE SECTION
***
Links to Specific Internal Subsections in Website
To View All Postcard Stories, Please Use the Link Below
Postcard Stories – Writing In The Shade Of Trees
***
0 Comments