5-star Reviews for Sophie de Tott, Artist in a Time of Revolution
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Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2020
I found this a fascinating read. Sometime in the year 1800, 42-year-old Sophie de Tott from Paris, artist, novelist, refugee and strong supporter of the Bourbon monarchy, flees from Hamburg to Maddox Street, London, to escape Napoleon's agents and the likely guillotine. In London she continues to paint portraits for a living, as she has done with some success in the Hanseatic city.
The French Revolution had upended so many lives - occasionally for the better, as would be the case with Fanny Burney and her French refugee husband. Julia Gasper's absorbing account of the daring, peripatetic existence of Sophie de Tott, however, makes it clear that in this case, the Revolution is not the only factor.
The international scene - spying included, naturally - was in the de Tott background. Sophie's diplomat father, Baron François de Tott, half French, half Hungarian, had kept an eye on Russia on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. His eldest daughter had been born in Constantinople; eighteen years later, arriving in France with her mother and younger sisters, Sophie is welcomed as an exotic beauty, well-educated to boot; and even adopted as a daughter by members of the aristocracy. The childless Comtesse de Tessé, lady of honour to Queen Marie Antoinette, is a patroness of Mozart and Beaumarchais, an admirer of Samuel Richardson and among the correspondents of Voltaire. She hosts Thomas Jefferson - with whom Sophie studies Homer - and is a friend of Mme de Stael (who takes against her). The Comtesse adores Sophie; she arranges for her to be taught music and painting - probably by Elizabeth Vigée Lebrun - and to inherit the de Tessés' country house near Versailles. Twice in ten years, however, Sophie falls passionately in love with unsuitable men; one blind, penniless and illegitimate, though of royal blood, the other a married roué. The Comtesse can stomach neither; both women stand firm. And so the reckless Sophie walks out on her patroness and her inheritance, right in the middle of the French Revolution.
In Hamburg she writes a part-biographical novel, PAULINE DE VERGIES, THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE STAINCIS, getting a lot off her chest. This novel has not yet been translated into English but Gasper has rendered some intriguing snippets featuring tyrannical older women. A young woman is scolded for laughing, for yawning, flor blowing her nose and for putting her elbows on an armchair without asking permission of the whole company. Such behaviour, she is told, will ruin her chances of acquiring a husband. The heroine laughs loudly at this, giving offence; and later explains in a letter:
"Independence is what I long for....incapable as I am of obedience, I know how to value it, and would appreciate it above all in a husband. If I must I would sacrifice good looks and even intelligence, which is not always an advantage in a husband...." This novel has wit and social satire. In the end, however, the rebellious heroine suffers and dies, tormented by a guilty love for a married man.
Sophie de Tott remains in London for fourteen years, keeping afloat as an artist, painting portraits of French royalists and English sympathizers - commissions obtained through the spy network - of which at least fifty survive. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and became known as an eminent artist of the day. Her most successful portrait was of the future General ir John Moore, later to become a national hero. Sophie's double painting of him and the Mameluke Elfi Bey was commissioned by the Duke of Kent, future father of Queen Victoria. Its success would enable the artist to move from Maddox Street to the more fashionable Park Street, Mayfair. I find aénother of her portraits exceptionally powerful; that of the handsome, brooding Prince de Condé, his army recently defeated by Napoleon.
Much of Sophie's life in expensive London was hand-to-mouth; an artist was often paid in arrears, and along the way it seems probable that she had an illegitimate son, grandson of the Margravine of Anspach, expensively hushed up.
Unlike her heroine Pauline, however, Sophie's own story has a happy ending. In l815, year of Napoleon's final defeat, now aged 57, she can at last return to France, to be rewarded for her loyalty to the Bourbons over many tough years.The Duchesse d'Angoulême, first lady of France, employs Madame (honorary title) de Tott as lady of honour, residing at Versailles. Later, on accession to the throne of the next king, Charles X, she even manages to take back that country estate near Versailles belonging to the Comte and Comtesse de Tessé, both now deceased.. The house had been destroyed in the Revolution but the estate was still hers.
And so, according to Julia Gasper's thoroughly enjuoyable account of her life, the rebellious, passionate Sophie becomes a much-respected, comfortably-off old lady, known for piety and generosity to the poor. And, as her heroine Pauline would have wished, independent. "Independence is what I long for and value above all......"Perhaps Sophie's portraits too, admired in their day and of great interest now from a historical point of view, will again come into their own.
The French Revolution had upended so many lives - occasionally for the better, as would be the case with Fanny Burney and her French refugee husband. Julia Gasper's absorbing account of the daring, peripatetic existence of Sophie de Tott, however, makes it clear that in this case, the Revolution is not the only factor.
The international scene - spying included, naturally - was in the de Tott background. Sophie's diplomat father, Baron François de Tott, half French, half Hungarian, had kept an eye on Russia on behalf of the Ottoman Empire. His eldest daughter had been born in Constantinople; eighteen years later, arriving in France with her mother and younger sisters, Sophie is welcomed as an exotic beauty, well-educated to boot; and even adopted as a daughter by members of the aristocracy. The childless Comtesse de Tessé, lady of honour to Queen Marie Antoinette, is a patroness of Mozart and Beaumarchais, an admirer of Samuel Richardson and among the correspondents of Voltaire. She hosts Thomas Jefferson - with whom Sophie studies Homer - and is a friend of Mme de Stael (who takes against her). The Comtesse adores Sophie; she arranges for her to be taught music and painting - probably by Elizabeth Vigée Lebrun - and to inherit the de Tessés' country house near Versailles. Twice in ten years, however, Sophie falls passionately in love with unsuitable men; one blind, penniless and illegitimate, though of royal blood, the other a married roué. The Comtesse can stomach neither; both women stand firm. And so the reckless Sophie walks out on her patroness and her inheritance, right in the middle of the French Revolution.
In Hamburg she writes a part-biographical novel, PAULINE DE VERGIES, THE LETTERS OF MADAME DE STAINCIS, getting a lot off her chest. This novel has not yet been translated into English but Gasper has rendered some intriguing snippets featuring tyrannical older women. A young woman is scolded for laughing, for yawning, flor blowing her nose and for putting her elbows on an armchair without asking permission of the whole company. Such behaviour, she is told, will ruin her chances of acquiring a husband. The heroine laughs loudly at this, giving offence; and later explains in a letter:
"Independence is what I long for....incapable as I am of obedience, I know how to value it, and would appreciate it above all in a husband. If I must I would sacrifice good looks and even intelligence, which is not always an advantage in a husband...." This novel has wit and social satire. In the end, however, the rebellious heroine suffers and dies, tormented by a guilty love for a married man.
Sophie de Tott remains in London for fourteen years, keeping afloat as an artist, painting portraits of French royalists and English sympathizers - commissions obtained through the spy network - of which at least fifty survive. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and became known as an eminent artist of the day. Her most successful portrait was of the future General ir John Moore, later to become a national hero. Sophie's double painting of him and the Mameluke Elfi Bey was commissioned by the Duke of Kent, future father of Queen Victoria. Its success would enable the artist to move from Maddox Street to the more fashionable Park Street, Mayfair. I find aénother of her portraits exceptionally powerful; that of the handsome, brooding Prince de Condé, his army recently defeated by Napoleon.
Much of Sophie's life in expensive London was hand-to-mouth; an artist was often paid in arrears, and along the way it seems probable that she had an illegitimate son, grandson of the Margravine of Anspach, expensively hushed up.
Unlike her heroine Pauline, however, Sophie's own story has a happy ending. In l815, year of Napoleon's final defeat, now aged 57, she can at last return to France, to be rewarded for her loyalty to the Bourbons over many tough years.The Duchesse d'Angoulême, first lady of France, employs Madame (honorary title) de Tott as lady of honour, residing at Versailles. Later, on accession to the throne of the next king, Charles X, she even manages to take back that country estate near Versailles belonging to the Comte and Comtesse de Tessé, both now deceased.. The house had been destroyed in the Revolution but the estate was still hers.
And so, according to Julia Gasper's thoroughly enjuoyable account of her life, the rebellious, passionate Sophie becomes a much-respected, comfortably-off old lady, known for piety and generosity to the poor. And, as her heroine Pauline would have wished, independent. "Independence is what I long for and value above all......"Perhaps Sophie's portraits too, admired in their day and of great interest now from a historical point of view, will again come into their own.
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