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Jules and Marie

She's 25, he's 36. They're young, they're beautiful, they're incredibly talented. We are in October 1884 in Paris. They see each other for the last time. Jules Bastien Lepage, tottering, pays a last visit to his friend Marie Bashkirtseff, carried on a sofa by her cousin Dina. They love each other with a desperate, marvelous love, with an incredible delicacy.

They will die.

Jules Bastien Lepage (Autoportrait - Musée Bastien Lepage Montmédy) et Marie Bashkirtseff


-Landscapes are for Jules, said Marie, but the street is for me!

Marie Bashkirtseff paints, she sings, she writes a diary in which she delivers herself without shame, with an incredible ingenuity tinged with violence.

Marie Bashkirtseff Un meeting Huile sur toile 1885 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt
Marie Bashkirtseff Un meeting Huile sur toile 1885 © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Patrice Schmidt

Jules Bastien Lepage is an insolent success, to the point that Émile Zola advises not to praise him too much, otherwise he might becfome a meteor that will fall into oblivion.

Jules Bastien Lepage. Jeune fille. 1881 DP
Jules Bastien Lepage. Jeune fille. 1881 DP

They look at each other, stay for hours in the dark.

Jules said, "Oh, may I paint some more!" »

Mary responds, "Me too!" »


She will die on October 31, closely followed by Jules on December 10.


"Marie Bashkirtseff" is a lecture from the 19th century cycle by Fabrice Roy.


In his art history lectures, Fabrice Roy combines the past with the present, in a poetic and playful evocation of the French 19th century...



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