Author’s Note
180 Words
Author’s NoteVallon does not exist, but the description of the Impressionists and their lives are factual.
Le Chat Noir with its fantastic furnishings actually existed and its proprietor Rodolphe Sarles did much to popularise Montmartre. Renoir’s model Marie-Clementine Valadon changed her Christian name to Suzanne and became a famous artist. She was the mother of the genius Maurice Utrillo.
Spring by Claude Monet is in the National Galerie Berlin-Dahlem. Le Moulin de la Galette by Auguste Renoir, Landscape at Chaponval by Camille Pissarro and many other pictures by the Impressionists which belong to the Louvre are on permanent exhibition in the Musée de Jeu de Paume in Paris.
In 1803 Princess Pauline Borghese, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, bought the present British Embassy in the Faubourg St. Honoré from the Duc de Chamort. The Duke of Wellington purchased the building from the Princess in 1814. It was the first British Embassy ever owned by the British Government.
The cost of candles was a constant worry. Gas lighting was not installed until 1832, electricity in 1896. But an incoming Ambassador is still received with candles.
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