The "Angel Of Assassination"

           


This seems to be the only portrait of Charlotte Corday done from life.

At her trial she noticed that up in the gallery a young man was sketching her- and asked the favour of the court that in the short time that elapsed between trial and execution he should be allowed to come to her prison cell and finish his work. And so it transpired that she spent her last few hours having her portrait painted.

She took herself very seriously.

But then they all did. She and Marat both believed you could change the world by killing people. Victim and murderer- like two peas in a pod.

The portraitist Jean-Jacques Hauer is known for nothing else. He  was employed at the Theatre Francais, which presumably means he was a scene painter. He hasn't given us a great work of art but he has captured something. This is a real person, not the "angel of assassination" she became to a heroine worshipping posterity....

Compare And Contrast

 

This is the house and garden as they were in early April 2022- shortly after we moved in.

And here is what you see if you try to take a picture from roughly the same spot in late April 2025.



The gorse which was one of our first plantings has filled its niche just as intended.

Move to the left a bit and you see we do still have a lawn, but it has been encroached upon.



I don't hate grass but I don't want it to be anything more than punctation between the shrubs and trees. Who really needs large green spaces unless a game of tennis or croquet is envisaged?

Pigeon's Eye View

 And here's the garden as viewed from a first floor window. A bit rough and ready but that was always the plan....