ver
spoke to her.

APPENDIX X.

PORTRAITS OF CHOPIN.

A biography is incomplete without some account of the portraits of the
hero or heroine who is the subject of it. M. Mathias regards as the
best portrait of Chopin a lithograph by Engelmann after a drawing by
Vigneron, of 1833, published by Maurice Schlesinger, of Paris. In a
letter to me he writes: "This portrait is marvellous for the absolutely
exact idea it gives of Chopin: the graceful fall of the shoulders, the
Polish look, the charm of the mouth." Continuing, he says: "Another good
likeness of Chopin, but of a later date, between the youthful period and
that of his decay, is Bovy's medallion, which gives a very exact idea
of the outlines of his hair and nose. Beyond these there exists nothing,
all is frightful; for instance, the portrait in Karasowski's book,
which has a stupid look." The portrait here alluded to is a lithographic
reproduction of a drawing by A. Duval. As a rule, the portraits of
Chopin most highly prized by his pupils and acquaintances are those by
A. Bovy and T. Kwiatkowski. Madame Dubois, who likes Bovy's medallion
best, and next to it the portraits by Kwiatkowski, does not care much
for Ary Scheffer's portrait of her master, in whose apartments she had
of course frequent opportunities to examine it. "It had the appearance
of a ghost [d'un ombre], and was more pale and worn than Chopin
himself." Of a bust by Clesinger Madame Dubois remarks that it does not
satisfy those who knew Chopin. M. Marmontel writes in a letter to me
that the portrait of Chopin by Delacroix in his possession is a powerful
sketch painted in oil, "reproducing the great artist in the last period
of his life, when he was about to succumb to his chest disease. My
dear friend Felix Barrias has been inspired, or, to be more exact, has
reproduced this beautiful and poetic face in his picture of the dying
Chopin asking the Countess Potocka to sing to him." Gutmann had in his
possession two portraits of his master, both pencil drawings; the one
by Franz Winterhalter, dated May 2, 1847, the other by Albert Graefle,
dated October 19, 1849. The former of these valuable portraits shows
Chopin in his decline, the latter on his death-bed. Both seem good
likenesses, Graefle's drawing having a strong resemblance with Bovy's
medallion.

[FOOTNOTE: The authorship alone is sufficient to make a drawing by
George Sand interesting. Madame Dubois says (in a letter written to
me)