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    MADAME HENRIETTE BROWNE 89

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    ¦± -**«— It Is A Curious And Not Uninter...

    Tlie same natural and unstudied simplicity which forms so striking a feature of tliis lady ' s character , distinguishes her personal

    _apj ) earaiice , and gives a peculiar cachet even to her style of dress-She never wears a mixture either of materials or of colors ; and

    whether same material her dress and the be of same velve hue t , throug or of muslin hout . , Yet it is so always true a feeling of the

    of artistic fitness and completeness presides at its arrangement , that , in the most brilliant assemblages of the gay and the fashionable ,

    and surrounded by women in all the splendors of Parisian toilettes , she is always conspicuous above all others for a certain undennable

    grace and harmony of appearance which are too often wanting in costlier and more elaborate toilets .

    From Jher childhood Madame Henriette Brown has been noted for her skilful fingers , possessing a general gift of imitationand

    being able to do almost everything with those beautiful and clever , hands of hers . Not only is she aufait at every species of cutting out

    and sewing ; able , if she saw a bonnet that pleased her in a shop window , to go home and make one like it ; but she is also a fair

    upholsterer , fully equal to the task of putting up curtains , covering chairs and sofas , and so on ; can paper a room , and has a knack at all sorts of

    domestic carpentering and contriving , being always , and in everything she does , a pattern of thoroughness and neatness .

    Having devoted the morning to superintending her household affairs and getting through the multifarious work she has usually

    cut out for the early part of the day , she makes her toilet for the walk or visits of the afternoon , and proceeds about two o ' clock to

    her atelier _, which is but a few steps from her residence . She there takes off her bonnet , puts on a pair of gloves which lie ready beside

    her easel , and works at a picture for a couple of hours , without even turning _ujd her sleeves or putting on the least bit of an apron . And

    so neat and methodical is she in all she does , that to this day she has never dropped a particle of paintnever made the slightest speck

    , or smear , on any part of her dress while painting . About four o ' clock , or perhaps a little later in summer , the artist lays aside

    her palette , wipes her brushes , exchanges her painting-gloves ( without which she never touches a brush ) for a pair of spotless

    kid , resumes her bonnet , and goes oif to take a walk , pay visits , or anmse that particular herself in afternoon any oth . er way that she may have decided upon for

    She carries this same complete and orderly practicality into the realm of Art . She never invents ; she observes , combines , and

    reproduces . In all her paintings every face is a portrait ; every detail , however minute , is copied from _Natiire with literal fidelity .

    mind Though , all each the of elements her pictures of which in its wholeness it is composed is a are creation borrowed of her from own _,

    real life . She never makes the slightest preparatory sketch of her picturesbut each new conceptionas it occurs to heris quietland

    carefull y , thought out in her own minduntil she sees , it with y her ,

    vol . v . g

    Madame Henriette Browne 89

    MADAME HENRIETTE _BROWNE 89

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1860, page 89, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041860/page/17/