and women ruined her fortune and almost ended her
career as an artist. Her own conduct was not irreproachable.

Mme. Lebrun will be remembered principally as the great painter of
Marie Antoinette, who posed for her more than twenty times. The most
prominent people of Europe eagerly sought her work, while socially she
was welcomed everywhere. Her famous suppers and entertainments in
her modestly furnished hotel, at which Garat sang, Gretry played
the piano, and Viotti and Prince Henry of Prussia assisted, were the
events of the day. Her reputation as a painter of the great ladies and
gentlemen of nobility, and her entertainments, naturally associated
her with the nobility; hence, she shared their unpopularity at the
outbreak of the Revolution and left France.

It is doubtful whether any artist--certainly no French artist--ever
received more attention and honors, or was made a member of so many
art academies, than Mme. Lebrun. It would be difficult to make any
comparison between her and Rosa Bonheur, their respective spheres of
art being so different. Only the future will speak as to the relative
positions of each in French art.

In the domain of the dramatic art of the nineteenth century, two
women have made their names well known throughout Europe and
America,--Rachel, and Sarah Bernhardt, both tragediennes and both
daughters of Israel. While Rachel was, without question, the greatest
tragedienne that France ever produced, excelling Bernhardt in deep
tragic force, she yet lacked many qualities which our contemporary
possesses in a high degree. She had constantly to contend with a cruel
fate and a wicked, grasping nature, which brought her to an early
grave. The wretched slave of her greedy and rapacious father and
managers, who cared for her only in so far as she enriched them by her
genius and popularity, hers was a miserable existence, which detracted
from her acting, checked her development, and finally undermined her
health.

After her critical period of apprenticeship was successfully passed
and she was free to govern herself, she rose to be queen of the French
stage--a position which she held for eighteen years, during which she
was worshipped and petted by the whole world. As a social leader,
she was received and made much of by the great ladies of the Faubourg
Saint-Germain. Her taste in dress was exquisite in its simplicity,
being in perfect harmony with the reserved, retiring, and amiable
actress herself