Marie Bashkirtseff’s diary, 1876

January

1. 1 January 1876

   Here is the new year. Greeting and mercy. Well, the first day of 1876 was not so bad as I expected. They say the whole year is spent very much like the first day,…

2. 2 January 1876

   "I shall go Sunday at three o'clock," I said or rather shrieked, and Sunday at one o'clock everything was topsy-turvy. The trunks were still empty, and the floor…

3. 4 January 1876

   Yesterday Mamma wrote to B——, the brother of the empress's physician, and to-day he came to our house. He devotes himself to painting. After this visit, we went…

4. 5 January 1876

   This is what I wrote to the General: "I am in Rome, and it is very wonderful (ah! it is very wonderful, very marvellous). It is cold as Russia, the water freezes in…

5. 6 January 1876

   B—— has been here again and brought the addresses of some professors. Then we took a carriage, and Mamma went to the Russian priest's, the archimandrite Alexander.…

6. 7 January 1876

   Goodness! What prices people ask in Rome! For 1,800 francs one has only the barest necessaries! At the Hôtel de Rome I saw an apartment so large and so fine that it…

7. 11 January 1876

   We did not go out, but the artist Kalorbinski came, and to-morrow the lessons will begin. Monseigneur de Faloux, being unable to go out himself, sent the Chevalier…

8. 12 January 1876

   B—— and his cousin have called to see us. When these Russians go, I put on my dressing gown again, and say a lot of things, and rank myself among the goddesses,…

9. 13 January 1876

   Mamma and Dina are at church. It is our New Year's Day, and I have stayed at home to sew. That is my whim at present, and I must do what I wish. B—— called to offer…

10. 14 January 1876

    We met on the Pincio Count B——, who started at seeing me, then bowed to my mother. At five o'clock we went to see Monseigneur F——, a thin, black, agile old priest…

11. 16 January 1876

    I feel that I shall write badly, for I have just been reading my old journal. Mamma begged me to read the period of G——. I read it, passing over a number of things.…

12. 19 January 1876

    We went to the Pincio, there were a great many people. The Duc de L——, son of the Grand Duchess M——, the emperor's sister, was there with Mme. A——, the wife of a…

13. 19 January 1876

    At the church of St. John we met Baronne d'I——, the ambassadress's cousin, who came up to Mamma and talked with her a long time, apologising for not having yet…

14. 20 January 1876

    After three years study, if no accident happens, I shall have a voice such as is rarely heard, and I shall not yet be twenty. F—— is severe and just. I am afraid to…

15. 21 January 1876

    I want to have a gown like the one worn by Dante's Beatrice.

16. 22 January 1876

    Still another proof of the falsity of the cards. Yesterday I had a sort of sorceress come and she pretended to give me good luck. She told me to call the person I…

17. 23 January 1876

    I am making a large white garment for the house, for the spring, in Nice. Nice, miserable city, why cannot I live there as I like? In Nice I know everybody, but to…

18. 25 January 1876

    I am homesick. I took a singing lesson, and then went out with Mamma. We went to M. de E——'s studio. He requested permission to present a very elegant and popular…