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THE MEETING
By MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF

THE MEETING
MARIE BASHKIRTSEFF (1858 or 1860-1884)
IN THE LUXEMBOURG, PARIS

Marie Bashkirtseff was one of those unfortunate geniuses whose lives are one long struggle with a more or less hysterical emotion. As her famous " Journal" shows, she lived for emotions, for success and for fame. On April 3rd, 1883, she wrote in her journal: " I feel within me the power to render whatever strikes me. I feel a new force, a confidence in myself, which trebles my faculties. To-morrow I am going to begin a picture which charms me." The next entry runs: " Red Letter Day, Wednesday, April 4th. Six street children grouped, their heads close to one another, half length only. The eldest is about twelve, and the youngest six. The tallest, seen almost from the back, holds a nest, and the others are looking on, in various and suitable attitudes. The sixth is a little girl of four, seen from the back, her head raised and her arms crossed. The description may sound commonplace, but, in reality, all these heads together produce something excessively interesting." That was her first idea for "The Meeting," which was exhibited in the Salon of 1884, and created a widespread interest throughout Europe. After her death it was bought by the State and hung in the Luxembourg.

Into her brief life of twenty-four years she crowded a variety of experiences which she has immortalised in her remarkable " Journal." She was seventeen when she finally determined to devote herself to art, and her astonishing capacity was the wonder of her masters, who could hardly credit the fact that she was practically untrained.

She reproduced life as she saw it, finding in the streets of Paris and in its types a rich source of inspiration which she delighted to express in colour as Zola expressed it in words.

From the book "Famous Paintings" Volume 2 printed in 1913.

Large files of this public domain print are available at Stock Photos at Songs of Praise
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Online "Name the Painting"

Marie Bashkirtseff
at Wikipedia

From Childhood to Girlhood by Marie Bashkirtseff
online book

Marie Bashkirtseff
burial place

Famous Paintings in this Series

James Archer My Great Grandmother	Bashkirtseff The Meeting	Bouguereau Charity	John Brett From the Dorsetshire Cliffs
Arnesby Brown The River Bank	Joseph Clark Mother's Darling	John Constable The Hay-Wain	Jean Baptiste Camille Corot The Fisherman's Hut
Jean Baptiste Camille Corot A Flood	Leonardo Da Vinci Monna Lisa	Edouard Detaille The Dream	Henri Fantin-Latour Flowers
Thomas Gainsborough Queen Charlotte	Thomas Gainsborough The Market Cart	Jean Baptiste Greuze The Head of a Girl	Jean Baptiste Greuze Fidelity
James Clark Hook Home With the Tide	Alfred William Hunt Windsor Castle	Josef Israels The Shipwrecked Mariner	B.W. Leader The Stream in Summer-time
Madame Vigee Le Brun Portrait of the Artist	Alphonse Legros A Canal With a Fisherman	Anton Mauve Watering Horses	J.L.E. Meissonier The Cavalier
Sir J.E. Millais Speak! Speak!	Sir J.E. Mallais My First Sermon	George Morland The Reckoning	George Morland The Inside of a Stable
Murillo The Immaculate Conception of the Virgin	Alfred Parsons When Nature Painted All Things Gay	Ralph Peacock The Sisters	Rembrandt Syndics of the Cloth Merchants' Guild
Guido Reni "Ecce Homo"	Sir Joshua Reynolds Portrait of Mrs. Richard Hoare With Her Infant Son	Briton Riviere The Temptation in the Wilderness	Dante Gabriel Rossetti Day Dreams
John Singer Sargent Miss Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth	Lady Stanley (Dorothy Tennant) His First Offence	Jan Steen Grace Before Meat	Marcus Stone On the Road from Waterloo to Paris
Constant Troyon Watering Cattle	H.S. Tuke "All Hands to the Pumps"	Velazquez King Philip IV. of Spain	S.E. Waller Sweethearts and Wives
Thomas Webster The Smile	Index Famous Paintings Volume 1 Art Gallery	Index Famous Paintings Volume 2 Art Gallery	Index Art Appreciation Lessons