Page 69

FORTY-EIGHT

N ow it’s Colette’s turn to copy Party on the Seine with her daughter in Grand-Mère’s studio.

She even dug up the small easel she used when she was a girl from the maze of Aimée’s barrels still stored in the cellar.

They sit together in front of Party , she with her pastels and the little girl with her crayons.

The child is only six, but it’s already obvious she has some of the family’s artistic aptitude.

Genevieve grabs fistfuls of crayons, and sometimes using three of them at once, dashes off her version of the painting.

“Arrière-Grand-Mère!” she shouts as she draws a flurry of curls with black and brown crayons clutched in her hand.

Then she drops the two brown ones and focuses more closely on Berthe’s eyes.

With a few ill-defined dark strokes that leave tiny flashes of white, she manages to capture the puzzling expression in them.

“You’re so good at this,” Colette tells her. “Maybe you’ll be a famous painter like your great-grandmother Berthe one day.”

“I’m good at this!” she cries, and then closely considers Party . “Just like Arrière-Grand-Mère Berthe, who made it.”

“She didn’t paint it, darling. The artist was your great-uncle édouard Manet.”

“It was not!” Genevieve stamps her foot. “Arrière-Grand-Mère did it.”

Colette pulls Genevieve into her lap, although the child is almost too big to fit.

She wraps her arms around her precocious daughter, imaginative and creative in so many ways.

If only she were able to have another child, but it has been six years, and she fears it may never happen.

At least the one she has is a gem. She twirls one of Genevieve’s curls around her finger.

“And what makes you think your great-grandmother painted it?”

“She told me.”

Colette laughs. “I didn’t know you two spoke.”

“She talks to me inside my head.”

THE FAMILY HAS always been committed to sharing its art collection, loaning pieces to museums across Europe for shows and exhibitions. But Colette misses Party when it’s gone, and tells Samuel she wants to stop lending it out.

“But that’s what we do, my dear. The Bernheims have always been dedicated to supporting the community of the arts. Particularly museums.”

“I wasn’t suggesting that we stop our support. I’d just like to keep Party on the Seine with me. And Genevieve loves the painting so.”

“I understand how much this painting means to you, but it’s such a glorious work that it doesn’t seem right to keep it to ourselves when it’s possible for so many others to enjoy it.”

“You’re a much better person than I am, and I admit I may not be acting in the most charitable way. But it makes me so happy to be with her, and so unhappy when she’s gone. Especially when the trips are long, like the last one to Munich.”

“I’m not fond of what’s going on in Germany anyway.” He frowns. “That Hitler is more of a threat than anyone seems to want to acknowledge.”

“But not to us here in France.”

“We thought we were safe before the Great War.” Then he clears his throat. “So what if we compromise and only lend it to Paris museums and just for important shows? The Louvre or l’Orangerie?”

His words about Germany give Colette pause, but she cannot believe there is any real danger to her family and agrees to his suggestion, hoping these requests will be few.

But within a few weeks the Louvre approaches her about a special exhibition of Degas’s and Manet’s work to be called “The Impressionist Duo.” It will be a four-week show, and they promise to transport Party to the museum two days prior to the opening and return it one day after closing.

Colette consoles herself that the exhibition isn’t until November, almost nine months away.

She and Genevieve still sit in the studio and copy Party , but Colette has found an art tutor for her daughter, and the girl has begun working on her own creations, some of which are astonishingly good.

They are painting together quietly one Saturday afternoon when Genevieve points at Party and says, “Arrière-Grand-Mère doesn’t want to go to the Louvre. ”

Colette stares at her daughter. “She told you this inside your head?”

Genevieve nods and turns back to her canvas.

THE SéANCE WITH Mademoiselle Beauséjour is at Colette’s house this month.

She and eight other women of her circle meet every four weeks with the respected spiritualist, and much has been revealed over time.

Jeanne learned that her departed mother was no longer angry with her for marrying beneath her station.

Mademoiselle told Yvonne that she would be with child within a year, which she was.

Through Mademoiselle’s fingers on a Ouija board, Lya’s little son reported that he was happy in heaven, so she shouldn’t be sad.

And then there was the time at Rachelle’s home when the table under their fingers began to move on its own. Or so it seemed.

Colette is the most skeptical of the group, although Rachelle and Lena have also voiced doubts.

Everyone else is a true believer, convinced whatever occurs at the séance is indisputable.

While Colette would not claim this impossible, for no one can know all the answers, she thinks of these engagements as entertainment, akin to watching a magician or a theatrical performance.

Samuel refers to the séances as her “frivolous afternoons,” which is exactly what they are.

Today they are in Berthe’s studio, as the upstairs rooms are being redecorated.

Everyone is seated at a large table with ten chairs that the servants brought down earlier, and, as Mademoiselle had instructed, it’s covered with a white tablecloth that hangs to the floor.

Three lit candles sit in its center, and the drapes have been drawn.

Mademoiselle is dressed in a sinuous robe, twinkling with blue stars representing the constellations.

She has placed two enameled pots at either end of the table, from which curls of incense swirl upward, filling the air with the musky smell of patchouli.

The women hold hands, uniting the circle, and close their eyes as Mademoiselle begins her whispered chant.

“It is now time to rid our minds of earthly cares and open ourselves to what is beyond,” she says. “Let the spirits know we wish to communicate with them. That we seek their guidance.”

As always, the women do as she asks, for this is the ritual’s preamble.

Then they wait silently for Mademoiselle to fall into her trance.

This happens quickly, her eyes focused somewhere far beyond the room, her breathing even.

“Join us, oh worthy and wise ones,” she says in a much deeper voice than her usual timbre, closer to a man’s, which is how she speaks when she’s in a trance.

“We welcome you into our séance, ready to receive your messages and insights.”

Suddenly, she wrenches her hands from the others’ and jerks to a stand, something she’s never done before. She clutches the clasp at the top of her robe. “No!” she shouts in her normal voice, also highly uncommon. “Do not come here. Leave us this very moment!”

The women look at one another, both anxious and excited.

Colette wonders if this is a response to an actual spirit or a new act the medium has mastered.

But as she watches Mademoiselle’s face drain of color and her eyes bolt to every corner of the room, she can’t help but think it might be real.

Mademoiselle is usually more tempered, speaking in a measured way.

She never shouts, never appears disturbed.

Then Mademoiselle turns abruptly, as if pushed, and stumbles toward Party .

She raises her hands to her ears, her expression akin to the man in Edvard Munch’s The Scream .

She backs away from the painting until her shoulders hit the far wall.

“She, she says she will not go to the Louvre,” Mademoiselle croaks, then looks at Colette, her eyes full of terror. “Do you know what this means?”

“No, not at all,” Colette says. It is as if the floor has dropped out from under her, as if all that is solid in her world is disintegrating.

Mademoiselle Beauséjour is shaking visibly. “She, she says she cannot be considered a Manet. And can never be. That if this happens, she will not be accountable for the consequences.” The medium steadies herself against the table. “I must take my leave, ladies. I, I am not well.”

That same afternoon, Colette informs the museum that she is very sorry, but Party on the Seine will not be available for the exhibition.