Evenings at Events by Pierre Sandoz
Every Thursday Sandoz used to organize evening accepting all of his friends. They talked about art and each one stood for his own views and opinions. When they were young these evenings were much loved by these enthusiastic young people. In clouds of smoke and crackle of glasses they were crying, yelling and disputing. But as years passed their hot heads became less hot and more rational, and the last evening Sandoz hold showed that the time of strong friendship was gone as every one was blaming another for their personal failures, and jealousy of those who succeeded was obvious. Most of the stones were thrown into Claude, but he never tried to protect or justify himself. These evenings are images of bohemian life in Paris in the second part of the XIX century.
Talented from childhood
Claude, Sandoz and Duduche used to be inseparable friends in childhood; they always were together and were very happy to get to Paris together as well. By their natures they were similar in eager for work, glory and success, but at the same time they were different in characters. When being boys they “by themselves performed the dramas they knew by heart, inflating their voices when repeating the speeches of the heroes, and reducing them to the merest whisper when they replied as queens and love-sick maidens.” The images from their childhood show how talented they were yet then, and how eager they were to pour these talents into the stream of art.
Salon of Rejected
The day when Claude’s painting was revealed in the Salon of Rejected “was a lovely day, with a limpid sky, to which the breeze, still somewhat chilly, seemed to impart a brighter azure”, but the weather of the day did not make the weather inside. There “before certain pictures the public stood joking”, “women ceased concealing their smiles behind their handkerchiefs”, “It was the contagious hilarity of people who had come to amuse themselves, and who were growing gradually excited, bursting out at a mere trifle, diverted as much by the good things as by the bad” – in such descriptions the Salon of Rejected is depicted in the novel.
