Recollections of a Picture Dealer by Ambroise Vollard

Author:Ambroise Vollard [Vollard, Ambroise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2012-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

Another day, when I got to Gervex’s, I found him quite upset, as the result of a singular adventure. Two days earlier, during dinner, the maid had come in to say that “ someone wanted to see Monsieur.”

“Tell him to come back to–morrow,” said the painter.

But he changed his mind, thinking it might be an American, and told her to show the visitor into the studio, whither he betook himself.

Twenty minutes passed and Mme Gervex, feeling anxious, went into the studio. She saw her husband at bay in a corner of the room, and in front of him an individual armed with a cudgel, shouting:

“ I shall not go away till you have taught me to draw.”

With great sang–froid Mme Gervex said to her husband:

“ Why won’t you teach Monsieur to draw? ”

And turning to the stranger:

“ Only, Monsieur, you must first put your name down. The register is in the concierge’s lodge.”

They all three went downstairs. Mme Gervex made the visitor, now very meek, go in front of her. All at once he made a dash for the porte–cochère and vanished.

Next day, the police having been informed, an agent kept careful watch before the building.

Towards evening the peculiar stranger again presented himself, and they tried to arrest him; but he succeeded in escaping. Running after him, they came up with him in a hovel, where an old woman cried out on seeing them:

“ My God! What has he done now, Monsieur l’agent? My boy hasn’t got all his wits about him, but he’s quite harmless; it’s only when he is crossed that he gets angry.”

Gervex, however, was not satisfied with this assurance, and the concierge was given instructions accordingly. So that a few days later when Forain came to call on Mme Gervex, he was held up and informed, “ If Monsieur has come for the drawing course, it is suspended till further orders.”

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