Some days later, invited to the soirées of Queen Hortense, Madame
Clément Boulanger valsed for the first time,--as a young girl, she
had never been allowed; as a young wife, she had not yet had time
to do so;--she valsed, we say, for the first time, and with Prince
Louis. After this they began seriously to set to work. Madame Clément
Boulanger had seen all she desired in seeing Madame Mère, but she would
have been very disappointed had she been prevented from seeing the rest!
Meanwhile, Clément had finished a companion picture to the _Macchabées_
and had sketched out the tournament of the Tournelles: the subject was
_Henri II., tué, à travers sa visière, par l'Éclat de lance de Gabriel
de Montgomery._ This picture appeared at the Exhibition of 1831, and is
now at the château de Saint-Germain.
From Rome the lovers started for Naples. Madame Clément was _enceinte,_
and in order to produce a happy pregnancy Providence arranged the
eruption of 1832. From Naples they returned to Florence. There Clément
completed and exhibited in a church his picture of the _Corpus Domini._
This picture was a great success, so great, that the Contadini from
the environs of Florence, who came to see the picture in processions,
hearing it constantly said that it was a representation of the _Corpus
Domini_ and, not knowing what _Corpus Domini_ meant, believing that
it was the painter's name, openly called Clément Boulanger and his
wife M. and Mme. Corpus Domini. Meanwhile, the young couple took hasty
excursions into the country and, as the parents could not leave little
Albert behind, they put him in a basket which a man carried on his
head. This was the son of Corpus Domini, and bearing this title, no
goat-herd but would give him of her milk.
In his spare moments Clément remembered his chemical studies: he
invented a kind of paper which concealed ink. You only had to dip the
pen in the water-jug, stream or river, or simply in your mouth, to
write with water or with saliva, and the writing became black as fast
as the nib of the pen formed the letters. It was such a wonderful
invention that they decided to start a paper factory under illustrious
patronage. This patronage was granted and a sheet of the chemical paper
was taken to Madame Clément. Unluckily or luckily, Madame Clément had
a cold; she sneezed; the damped paper became black all over where it
had been wetted. This gave the spectators much food for reflection.
It would be impossible to use the paper on a rainy day or days when
one had a cold or on days when one was tearful. The factory idea was
renounced.
Clément Boulanger returned to Paris in the month of February 1832;
and from the 10th to the 15th March of the same year, so far as I can
recollect, he covered with his broad and easy style of painting a panel
twelve feet by ten in my house.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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