Grandma Kara claid in her letter from France—"At dusk in Paris, my friends and I saw the fiery glow swirling above the Arc de Triomphe, and my dreams also floated upon it... A brand new artistic path unfolded before my eyes. Within the burning sky, I saw a river of dreamlike colors extending infinitely. I sensed that this would be the ho of my life."
In the nineteenth century.
The career paths for nobles were very singular,
n would go to the military to get an officer’s title or seek a civilian post in the parliantary cabinet.
Girls would specialize in how to beco a gentle wife and dignified mother.
Painters, especially female painters, were very unrecognized professions.
Although art was sought after, the status of painters... how shall I put it, can be likened to celebrities in traditional Dongxia society,
Only so high.
Apart from great painters.
If you could paint like nzel and beco a confidant to the Prussian Imperial Family, frequenter of the court as if you were eating and drinking, your social status would still be quite high.
However,
How could a girl possibly beco a great painter?
In the mainstream values of the affluent class, expensive artworks, like horse racing, salons, beautiful postal typists, and ballet dancers, were mainly consumables for the daily amusent of male aristocrats.
Playing around is fine,
But actually becoming a painter, that’s really quite unconventional.
Those years, the elders of the Ilyena family were nearly driven mad; they first stopped Grandma Kara’s family annuity and then continuously sent reprimanding letters, hoping she would "correct her ways."
Grandma Kara was quite a remarkable woman.
Facing the elders’ fury, she only responded to the family with a nude self-portrait as her confession.
Nude portraits are never vulgar.
On the contrary, they have always been regarded as the highest, most elegant forms of aesthetics.
Take Austria for instance, where one of the most famous great painters, Klimt, was known for his playful and passionate nature, and his love for painting nude models.
Countless National Art Galleries pride themselves on having a Klimt nude artwork.
However, painting nudes were once just a privilege for male painters.
Even if European nobles had chaotic private lives, syphilis was rampant, and illegitimate children abound,
Yet if a high society Miss rely set foot in an art studio with nude models, she would be considered very "depraved" and "improper."
Kara’s actions were considered utterly rebellious.
Painting a nude self-portrait—this was her mockery of societal and family discipline.
The Ilyena family elders were so furious with Kara’s rebellious behavior that they nearly had a stroke, and at that ti sent the housekeeper with servants by train to Paris to forcibly bind this girl who had tarnished the family’s reputation and bring her ho.
Locked up, sent to the monastery, whipped, bound into the basent and imprisoned.
This dieval way of treating disobedient girls lingered in European high society longer than people imagined, lasting sporadically until after World War II with scattered reports.
In the nineteenth century, it was commonplace.
They burned all of Kara’s works, including the "Self-portrait," right in front of her.
Anna was moved every ti she saw Kara’s story and also saddened.
She had gone to Paris more than once during her student days and wandered around the location of Grandma Kalazu’s forr studio.
The studio was bought by a furniture contractor back then, and now it is an office of a Paris investnt bank.
The traces from a hundred years ago have long scattered with the wind, leaving no marks to find.
Yet, just a few blocks away lies the famous Moulin Rouge Nightclub and the blue Seine River.
This was once the birthplace of modern world art.
Monet t the master painter Bisha’a here; Seurat painted his masterpiece "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" here; in 1876, 35-year-old Renoir, brimming with love for art and life, initiated "The Dance at the Moulin de la Galette" here.
At the intersection near the investnt bank’s traffic lights stands the statue of Miss Mary Stevenson Cassatt.
On the marble pedestal, Miss Mary holds a sketch pad, gazing at the Seine.
She wears a gentle smile, her dress fluttering, with flowers and letters of gratitude from art students worldwide and admirers of Miss Mary lining the sculpture.
This goddess of Impressionism and Madam Curie were both selected in Ti Magazine’s list of one hundred outstanding independent won in human history.
To this day, every International Won’s Day.
The Arican Won’s Federation and representatives from the United States embassy co to Miss Mary’s statue, placing a bouquet of roses to commorate this Impressionist’s first female painter’s remarkable contributions.
Whenever Anna saw Miss Mary’s statue, she would think of her Grandma Kara.
They shared similar backgrounds, identical life experiences, the sa independent drive, and both saw art as their lifelong career.
After one hundred and fifty years, one achieved success and fa, received endless tributes from the art world.
But the other’s lifeti effort turned to ashes and dust, leaving only a small tombstone in the monastery.
This is the painter’s fickle fate.
After being imprisoned by the family for a year, Grandma Kalazu died of tuberculosis, despondent.
She left a brief will before she died—"In my life, I was satisfied with only two of my works; one self-portrait was destroyed by flas, and the other painting, I hid at the end of the world. The courage to pursue beauty is my driving force to fight against fate."
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