SAINTE-BEUVE AND BALZAC
565
so, in the same way, his pictures-whether those in
his
collection
or those he saw at Wierschownia, most of which were to go to the
Rue Fortunee-are "characters in fiction" too. Each of them calls
forth those historical disquisitions, those picture-lover's reviews, that
admiration that 'turns quickly into illusion, exactly as
if
they hang
not on Balzac's walls but in the collections of Pons, or of Claes, or
in the Abbe Chapeloud's modest library, in those novels of his where
there are pictures on the footing of people, and where the slightest
Coypel "would not disfigure the finest collection"; juSt as Bianchon
is the equal of Cuvier, of Lamarck, of Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire.
And he does not describe the furniture of Cousin Pons or of Claes
with more affection, more realism, more illusion, than he describes
his pictures in the Rue Fortunee or those at Wierschownia. "I have
received the table-cistern tha't Bernard Palissy made for Henry II
or Charles IX. It is one of his best pieces, and one of the rarest, a
priceless specimen, for it has a diameter of fifteen to twenty inches
and stands twenty-seven inches high, etc." "The little house in the
Rue Fortunee will soon receive some fine pictures, a charming head
by Greuze which comes from the collection of the late king of
Poland, two Canalettos that once belonged to Pope Clement XIII,
two Van Huysums, one Van Dyke, three canvases by Rotari-the
Greuze of Italy, a
Judith
by Cranach which is a miracle, etc. These
pictures are
di primo cartello,
and would not disfigure the finest
collection." Elsewhere he speaks of his chandelier-"from the house–
hold goods of some German emperor, because it is surmounted by
a two-headed eagle"; of his portrait of Queen Maria Leczinska
"which is not a Coypel, but painted in his workshop by an appren–
tice, possibly Lancret, possibly another; one needs to be a connoisseur
not to take it for a Coypel." "A charming Natoire, signed and very
authentic, a trifle pretty-pretty, however, against the substantial spe–
cimens of painting in my collection." "An
Aurora
of Guido's in
his
powerful manner, when he was completely Caravaggio. It reminds
me of Canaletto, bu't it is more grandiose. In short, it is incomparable,
for me, at least.".'! " ... a Van Dyke, a Cranach, a Mignard, a Rigaud,
every one of them superlative, three Canalettos purchased by the
3 He often said: "for me, at least"; he said of
Cousin Pons:
"It is, for
me, at least, one of those fine works. ..." It must have been his mother who
told him:
If
you talk like that, you should say, for me, at least.
