18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 33

[cahn]

And, I mean, it doesn't have to be just 18th century characters, either!

(also, waiting for Yuletide!)

Comments

Re: Voltaire portrait

[selenak]

So very much Voltaire! Wiki tells me he did twelve of these "every day life of Voltaire" types of paintings for Catherine, and a lot more sketches and silhouettes, having joined Voltaire's social circle in 1756 till Voltaire's leaving for Paris to die in 1778. English wiki and German wiki tell different versions of the "dog" anecdote, which is that Jean Huber had trained his dog (English wiki: his hunting dog; German wiki: his pet dog) to take bites of (English wiki: toast; German wiki: cheese) in the shape of Voltaire's profile. (German wiki's given source is Jean Orieux' Voltaire biography, btw!)

There's also a painting of his showing Voltaire having lunch that features not just Diderot (the only person there not wearing a wig) but Saint-Lambert and his post-Émilie girlfriend Sophie (the one who chose him over Rousseau). All these paintings of Voltaire in his old age are great (and btw do show he'd lost his teeth by then), but the morning one is absolutely the funniest!

Re: Voltaire portrait

[mildred_of_midgard]

to take bites of (English wiki: toast; German wiki: cheese)

I imagine if the dog can do it to one, it can do it to the other! Either way, man, sometimes I just really want video from the past. This belongs on YouTube!

Re: Voltaire portrait

[selenak]

Well, as you know I think Biche would have her own twitter account (read: Fritz would post pics and vids showing her and the other dogs). Jean Huber sounds like he'd be an Instagram star!