A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Mirbel, Lezinska Rue de
MIRBEL, LEZINSKA RUE DE,
Was born at Paris, daughter of a commissary of the marine. She belonged to a family, every branch of which was opulent, except her own. Nature had endowed her, however, with a firmness of character and a loftiness of spirit which rendered poverty honourable, as, instead of degrading, it spurred her to those exertions which have given her name a European celebrity. She determined, at a very early age, to accomplish an object which she set before herself; that was, to become independent by her own efforts, and to supply the wants of her mother and her young brother. After long and due consideration, she determined upon applying herself to miniature painting, which she felt was her particular vocation. She was then eighteen, and remarkable for beauty and intelligence. Having entered herself as a student with Augustin, she regulated her hours upon the strictest rules of industry and method; every moment had its employment; a time was allotted to the necessary practice of her art; a time to reading, and a time to needle-work. Up at four o'clock in the morning, she was always ready and never hurried; the evening she devoted to society, and the day to the most persevering labours. Her youthful spirit knew no languor, either moral or physical. Filling her place gracefully in the drawing-room, in the studio she was the most severe and indefatigable of students Preparing by earnest and fatiguing application her distant future success—
"For sluggard's brows the laurel never grows
Renown is not the child of indolent repose."
The besetting sin of miniature painters is want of skill in drawing; Augustin could teach her the way of mixing and laying on colours, and the little mysteries of the profession; but this was not art, it was not drawing. A friend of her family, M. Belloc, a very distinguished connoisseur, advised her to withdraw firom the school of Augustin, and to give herself up exclusively and strenuously to the study of drawing. She took this judicious advice, and under his friendly direction applied herself to copy the greatest masters of her special branch of art. Her talent became rapidly developed, and she soon acquired a distinguished reputation. After her marriage with M. de Mirbel, she continued her efforts for improvement, which were attended by fame, fortune, and success. While the merit of her miniatures was acknowledged all over Europe, her charming manners and intelligent mind rendered her house the resort of the most distinguished literary and artistic personages of the day. She died September, 1849, deeply regretted by all who could estimate genius and her worth.