In a letter from France, Grandma Carla declared: "At dusk in Paris, my friends and I saw the fiery light hovering over the Arc de Triomphe, and my dreams floating over it...... A new path of art is slowly unfolding before my eyes. In the burning canopy, I saw a river of dreamy colors that could stretch infinitely. I felt that this would be my place for the rest of my life. ”

In the XIX century.

The career path of the aristocracy is very simple,

Men go to the military office to get an officer's title, or go to the parliamentary cabinet to get a civilian job.

The girls, on the other hand, specialize in how to be a gentle wife and a decent mother.

Painters, especially female painters, are a very unrecognized profession.

Although art is sought after, the status of painters is ...... How to say it, it can be compared to the famous singers in the traditional society of Eastern Xia,

The highs are limited.

Except for the great painters.

You have to be able to draw to the point where Menzel became a close friend of the Prussian royal family, and entering and leaving the court was like eating and drinking, and the social status was still quite high.

But

How could a girl become a great painter?

In the mainstream values of the affluent, expensive works of art, like horse races, salons, beautiful post office typists, and ballet dancers, were consumer goods that were the main daily pastimes of the male aristocracy.

It's okay to play,

It's quite unusual to be a painter yourself.

In those years, the elders of the Elena family were almost mad, they first stopped Grandma Kara's family annuity, and then kept sending letters of reprimand, hoping that the other party could "learn from their mistakes".

Grandma Carla is also a strange woman.

In the face of the thunderous outbursts of her elders, she only responded to give her family a self-portrait of herself as a confession.

Nude portraits, never vulgar.

On the contrary, it has always been considered the finest and most elegant form of aesthetics.

Take Austria itself, for example, where the most famous painter Klimt was born is famous for his amorous love of painting nude models.

Countless National Galleries are proud to have a painting of Klimt's human body.

However, painting nudes was once the prerogative of male painters.

Even if the aristocracy of Europe had their own private lives in chaos, syphilis was frequent, and lovers and illegitimate children were everywhere.

But even if a high-class lady just steps into a studio with nude models, she will be considered very "debauched" and "indecent".

Kara's behavior can be called a big rebellion.

Painting nude portraits of herself – this is an expression of her mockery of social and family discipline.

The elders of the Elena family were so angry by Carla's rebellious behavior that they almost suffered a brain break, so they sent a butler to take their servants to Paris by train and forcibly tied the girl home who had ruined the family's reputation.

Locked in confinement, sent to a convent, whipped and tied to a cellar for captivity.

This legacy of the Middle Ages towards disobedient girls persisted in European high society for longer than most people think, and continued until the end of World War II at the latest, with sporadic reports.

In the 19th century, it was commonplace.

They burned all of her work, including Self-Portrait, in front of Kara.

Every time Anna sees Kara's story, she is moved and lonely.

When she was a student, she traveled to Paris more than once and wandered around the location of Grandma Carla's studio.

The studio was bought by a furniture contractor and is now the office of an investment bank in Paris.

All the traces of a hundred years ago have long since drifted away with the wind, and there is no trace to be found.

However, just a few blocks away is the famous Moulin Rouge nightclub and the blue Seine.

It was once the birthplace of modern art in the world.

It was here that Monet met the master painter Pissa; It was here that Seurat painted his masterpiece "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Big Bowl"; In 1876, it was here that the 35-year-old Renoir wrote the first "Ball at the Pancake Mill" with his love for art and life.

At the intersection of the traffic lights not far from the investment bank is a statue of Miss Mary Stevenson Quesatt.

On a marble base, Mademoiselle Marie holds a drawing board in her hand and gazes at the Seine.

She was smiling, her skirt fluttering, and her sculpture was filled with flowers and letters of appreciation from art students and admirers of Miss Mary from all over the world.

The Impressionist goddess, along with Marie Curie, was included in Time magazine's list of one hundred outstanding independent women in human history.

To this day, International Women's Day is celebrated every year.

Representatives of the American Women's Federation and the French Embassy would come to Miss Mary's sculpture and place a bouquet of roses to commemorate the outstanding contribution of the first female painter of the Impressionists.

Whenever she saw the statue of Miss Mary, Anna remembered her Grandma Kara.

They have similar backgrounds, the same life circumstances, the same independent progress, and the same regard art as a lifelong career.

One hundred and fifty years later, one of them has become famous, shining in the art world, and there is an endless stream of memorials.

The work of a lifetime turned into dust, and only a small tombstone in the monastery remained.

This is the impermanence of the painter's world.

After a year in family captivity, Grandma Kara died of tuberculosis in a state of depression.

She left a brief suicide note before her death - "There are only two works that I am satisfied with in my life, a self-portrait destroyed in flames, and the other painting, I hid her at the end of the world." The courage to pursue beauty is the driving force for me to fight against fate. ”

The second half of this sentence also became Carla's epitaph.

Probably the elders of the Elena family were moved by her persistence, or maybe it was a small pity and unknown regret.

After Kara's death.

Her epitaph reads Malerin Coral.

Malerin is the feminine German word for artist, meaning female painter or female artist.

Aside from the painting that was "hidden at the end of the world", the only work Kara left behind was a burnt fragment of a self-portrait.

Anna had seen the remains of the self-portrait that had been preserved by the family.

The vast majority of the canvas had been burned, and all that remained was a few strands of long flowing blonde hair the size of a baby's palm.

Judging from the fragments, whether it is the brushstrokes or the texture of the pointillism, all of them are the handiwork of masters.

But what if it's the handiwork of a master?

In the field of painting, the artistic life of every painter is fragile.

They resemble a sparkling and fragile ice sculpture.

The sun and the moon polished, worked hard, and finally the painting entered the house, and you barely reached the bottom line of success.

The rest,

Look at the destiny, look at the nobles, and look at the chance.

And any rain and wind, the knife and axe of fate, may destroy their lives.

Those who have seen the cold wind blowing through know the pain under the cold wind.

"Don't let me down, Detective Cat Lady."

The reason why Anna is willing to make this call is that she hopes that compared with Grandma Kara, whom she admires, the artistic path of detective cats can go more smoothly.

She gently placed the other rose left in her hand on Kara's tombstone,

Turn away.

……

Dulwich College.

Mona put down her paintbrush and took a free cup of coffee from the side of the water bar in front of the coffee machine.

Her gaze swept over the crowd in the public studio.

The International High School is relatively wealthy, and there is an entire art building dedicated to the students.

The upper floor is the campus theater and auditorium for rehearsals and sorority balls, and the entire ground floor is a large public studio.

In the studio, there are various easels, canvases, brushes in drying, and plaster casts, and there are water bars and sofas in the corners for resting.

The public studio is where art students spend the most time on a daily basis.

Probably because the school recruitment meeting is approaching.

Even though it's Sunday, most of the thirteenth graders in the school have come to the studio and splash ink in front of the drawing board.

Mona looks,

At this time, many students were pointing at a row of easels in the corner of the studio.

"Amazing, this brush, this composition...... It's really not bad, and the lines are as accurate as if measured with a ruler. ”

"I guess I have the skills of a professional painter, but why only half a painting?"

"You know what, it's an idea that people can't figure it out. Art understands. ”

"Isn't it...... Although Miss Katsuko is very powerful, the angle of her licking is really novel. A male classmate mocked angrily.

"What about you? Miss Katsuko, the name is so affectionate, do people agree? ”

Not to be outdone, others ridiculed each other.

Mona stood up curiously and glanced at the easel in the corner.

There are four oil paintings lined up.

The beauty of these paintings is astonishing, especially when compared to other student drawings in the studio that are drying, as obvious as the difference between a 40 point on an exam and a 100 point on an exam.

"This is the work of that transfer student Katsuko Sakai this week, the picture is amazing enough, right? This is the daughter of an international great painter. ”

Coco, who had a punk-style silver single earring in her ear, sighed in front of the drawing board.

"Compared with others, we will become local girls in the countryside. I thought your little boyfriend was good enough. And the picture and pen of this transfer student are simply desperate. ”

Mona nodded subconsciously.

All four paintings have the same theme and composition.

Judging from the finished shape, it should be a church or a classical castle or something.

It's a pity that I don't know why,

Presumably Katsuko Sakai herself is not satisfied? The four paintings have just finished painting the dark thunderstorm background with the background color and stop writing, and the building in the middle has only the initial simple configuration.

is like a beautiful woman,

But only half of the face was drawn.

Pity.

"By the way, Gu Weijing is not my boyfriend, don't talk nonsense."

Mona seemed to have thought of something, and gave Kokoe a look of disgust.

Coco smiled playfully.

"It's good that you're happy. I kindly advise you, there are so many people you can meet, let them go, and there will really be no more. You don't really like that Jerry, I don't even like this kind of dude. ”

Mona glanced around the studio and snorted coldly.

Since the beginning of this semester, she has hardly seen Gu Weijing in the public studio.

Mona knew that Gu Weijing's family opened a small gallery, and there was also a studio at home where she could paint.

But so what?

She can also paint on the balcony of her bedroom.

Normally, the atmosphere of painting at home and at school is different.

Similar to the dormitory and the library, you can study, but for ordinary college students, the learning atmosphere and efficiency of the two are different.

In the school's public studio,

Your peers around you are working hard to prepare a portfolio, and you will be busy before you know it.

At home, people with poor self-discipline will waste their time.

That's where the environment comes in.

Gu Weijing had always been a frequent visitor to the public studio on campus and the king of volumes, but in such an important semester, he disappeared.

Or on the premise that she said that she would agree to date the "king" at the school recruitment meeting.

"I don't care at all."

That's what really annoys Mona.

She can forgive the other party for working hard but not succeeding.

Anyway, I'm going to graduate, even if the other party doesn't get the most offers, as long as I can go to the same university as myself, I regret the bet or something...... It's not impossible.

But she at least has to see Gu Weijing's attitude.

What is it that you hang yourself every day and don't spend your time on the right path?

"Why does this transfer student Katsuko Sakai only draw half a picture at a time?"

Mona was not interested in listening to the fact that she had always been not very good at dealing with Coco, a picture of a tutor teaching students in a condescending tone, guiding her own emotional life.

She changed the subject.

"It's because people themselves are not satisfied." Coco stuck out her tongue.

With the convenience of the same girl, that transfer student Katsuko Sakai was not as cold to Kou as she was to those wild bees and butterflies on campus.

Even if she is still far from the goal of "winning" this chick, she at least succeeded in adding friends with Katsuko Sakai under the pretext of asking about art issues, and she can say two words every day.

This made Coco quite excited.

The rice has to be eaten in one bite, and the beautiful girl has to be bent step by step.

You came up and looked like a greedy person's body, and everyone was scared away by you.

Koukou had heard Ms. Sakai explain that she had seen someone draw the same subject of a thunderstorm more vividly than herself, and she wanted to know what her problem was.

"More vivid than she painted?"

The person in Miss Sakai's mouth is Professor Kazunari Sakai.

This kind of distant artist seems to be floating on the clouds, and probably only an artistic genius like Katsuko Sakai can generate a comparative interest in his heart.

"None of them are satisfied, God...... I really don't know what such an artistic little princess came to us in Yangon to do. ”

Mona also sighed.

She secretly compared her own works, and the gap was too big.

The painting environment resembles a well.

The people around you are the walls of your well, and if you stay in Yangon for a long time, you may sit in the well and watch the sky.

Mona originally thought that peers like Gu Weijing were already very good.

Maybe that's true,

However, this kind of "small-town painter" in Yangon is compared to the heirs cultivated by the words and deeds of real great artists.

There is still a gap between cloud and mud.

"Oh, I probably know why she came to Burma."

Kou Ko said mysteriously at this time.

(End of chapter)