New Book Alert: Sophie de Tott: Artist in A Time of Revolution by Julia Gasper; Brilliant, Gripping Biography of Overlooked Female Artist of the French Revolution
By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Julia Gasper's previous book, Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist, European covered the life of Elizabeth Baroness Craven, Princess Berkeley Magravine of Brandenburg-Anspach. She was a brilliant woman whose travels and writings challenged the roles expected of women. She deserves to be recognized with other early feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft who led the path for other women to put those concerns from writing into activism.
Gasper's latest book, Sophie de Tott: Artist in a Time of Revolution, is a biography about another woman with immense talent but was neglected by history. This woman was Sophie de Tott (1758-1848) and like Craven, she too lived a colorful life as a portrait painter, novelist, musician, and secret agent. This book reveals her as a strong-willed woman with great talent, a strong sense of liberty and equality, and a scandalous personal life in which she lived according to her own terms.
Gasper wrote about Tott: "She is one of innumerable neglected women artists and wherever we find any allusions of her in catalogs and indexes, she is treated as an obscure painter of perhaps one or two works. In fact, there are about fifty works of hers that can definitely be listed, and possibly many others that have yet to be discovered."
Tott is yet another of those women who patriarchal history has ignored only to be rediscovered and recognized by feminist scholars. Similar to Elizabeth Craven, herself, and the women in Nina Ansary's book Anonymous is a Woman.
Tott's early life taught her a great deal about independence and liberty. She was born in Constantinople in 1758 to Baron Francois de Tott, the Hungarian born son of a French diplomat and who worked as a secretary for his cousin, Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes. Francois and his father arrived in Constantinople on a fact-finding mission. He married a woman, Marie Rambaud, the daughter of a mercantile family. Marie's mother was French, but born in Turkey, and her father was of Greek extraction.
Tott was born, Sofia-Ernesta later adapted to Sophie-Ernestine. She was the first of three daughters, the others being Angelique-Amelie and Marie-Francoise. Angelique became a nun and Marie had an advantageous marriage.There were three other children, but they died in childhood. This cosmopolitan heritage and upbringing often made Tott something of an outsider in French circles as she matured.
The Tott sisters grew up speaking French and their mother's native Greek. Their father's ideals which valued Nature, Knowledge, and Reason over wealth influenced their upbringing. They were taught reading, writing, and sewing by their mother.
Baron de Tott was often involved in military operations and reconstruction of Constantinople, so the family or he moved around a lot. By the time de Tott was 18, she, her mother, and sisters eventually settled in France.
Marie and her daughters' arrival in Lyon, France made quite a splash. Their Constantinople fashions including kavadis, ornately embroidered short sleeved robes over a petticoat and bodice, taraboulous, ornamented sashes around their waists, and scarves wrapped around their heads like turbans were much discussed.
They also met the Chevalier Charles de Pougens, a brilliant cultured young man who was born illegitimate. He developed an interest in young Sophie. An unsuccessful surgery left him completely blind, but he and Sophie continued to share romantic feelings for each other. They traded love letters with his friend, Fortia, acting as intermediary. Tott had no fortune and Pougeons, no employment but a promised stipend if he remained celibate.Their romance was not looked upon favorably.
Marie died in 1779 and the Baron did not approve of Pougeons as a suitor for his eldest daughter. He tried to force an arranged marriage upon her, but Tott ran away. Their arguments escalated and Tott moved in with a new friend, Adrienne, Comtesse de Tesse.
Tott and Tesse had a relationship that was both mother-daughter and mentor-student. Through Tesse's influence, Tott embraced a more intellectual, literary, and philosophical world. Tesse hosted frequent salons and corresponded with philosophers, Voltaire and Diderot and novelist, Mme. de Stael. 8-year-old, Mozart dedicated a performance to her.
The salon discussions were lively during the pre-Revolutionary days discussing religious skepticism, reformist plans, and republican ideals. Tott learned a lot from her mentor and developed a sense of reform, intellect, and equality that lasted throughout her life.
It is also through Tesse that Tott learned the music and painting that would help shape her later career. She may have been educated by Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun, a female portrait artist who had been commissioned by Marie Antoinette.
One of Tott's first portraits was of her adopted mother, seated with a sword on her lap. (The sword may be a symbol of the Tesses's Masonic Lodge membership.)
Tott's introduction to salon life and portrait painting did not go unnoticed. She was the subject of poems by Ponce Denis Echouard-LeBrun, who admired her work and compared her to the Graces of Greek mythology.
Even though Tott was in a learned exciting new world, she never ended her correspondence with Pougeons. They could not marry or even elope because the Baron had to give permission and any elopement would be annulled. Pougeons was told by Tesse to leave for three years and not to write to Tott. They however, continued to write passionate letters, swearing that they will never marry anyone but each other. Tott received much criticism from Tesse's inner circle for carrying on an affair in which neither her father nor foster mother approved but Tesse publically supported her.
The controversy caused both Tott and Pougeons to fall ill with emotional and psychological disorders. Tesse tried to keep the two apart by arranging a journalist position for Pougeons and sending Tott to a convent. (Despite that the Tesses weren't particularly religious.)
Tott's illness escalated to the point that she fell into a coma. Though Pougeon was at her bedside, he finally agreed to work at his occupation and cease their correspondence. Tott renounced her relationship with Pougeons and any hope of marrying him. However, true to her promise, she never married anyone else.
This romance and two others revealed her as a deeply passionate emotional woman who sometimes was ruled by those emotions. However, like many artists that passion and emotion allowed her to create and reveal her works in a deeply personal and loving light
Tott resumed the mother-daughter bond with Tesse when bigger world events shook them: the French Revolution. Tott and the Tesses had close friendships with many who helped shape the American Revolutionary War such as Thomas Jefferson and Marquis de Lafayette, Tesse's nephew by marriage. These allegiances as well as the sham trial and indefinete prison sentence of an acquaintance are among the many moments that revealed Tott's humanitarian goals that resisted against the despotism and carelessness of the royals.
While the Bourbon Royal family befriended many of the American Revolutionaries and aided America in their war for Independence, Gasper wrote that this alliance backfired on them drastically:
"Its ministers did not foresee the dangers of importing the most extreme radical ideology into the bosom of France where it was approved by leading intellectuals and even apparently by sovereigns...A hereditary monarch, whose ministers were appointed by decree and who could make or unmake laws as he pleased, was siding with a republican rebellion that was nothing more to do with kings." Economic inflation, excessive taxes, the limit of Parliamentary control, a starving poor populace, and sudden new ideas about liberation and egalitarian ideals helped make many of the French feel that perhaps a country without a monarchy was a good idea.
During this time, Tott maintained an intellectual and hearty correspondence with Jefferson. The two shared ideas, but she wasn't afraid to disagree with him such as giving her honest opinion about a portrait. Her artistic career continued as she painted other portraits such as that of a doctor who treated a mysterious ailment of hers and who then died himself of the same illness. Tott also had her portrait painted by her former tutor, Vigee-Lebrun.
Unfortunately, Tott's father was imprisoned in the Bastille in 1786. He was released, but it reopened Tott's status as an unmarried woman without a man's support. The Tesses settled property on her, about seven thousand livres, and made her the heir to their country home. She was able to live as a woman of independent means.
Before the Revolution, Tott painted what was probably her most provocative portrait, that of Ourika, a young Senegalese girl who was sent to France by the Marechal de Boufflers to his aunt. The painting depicts the girl, about eight years old, putting a Laurel wreath on the bust of a man. Ourika's is one of only about a dozen portraits of black people in Paris during this time. Gasper wrote that those portraits were not only artistic, but political as well. "To portray a black person at all as a named individual was to draw attention to their humanity."
Gasper speculated that Tott's own foreign background allowed her to sympathize with Ourika and recognize her humanity.
In 1799, the Comte de Tesse joined the Estates-General and suggested benevolent reforms such as universal elementary education and welfare inspections of wet-nurses. Unfortunately, these reforms could not help a hungry enraged populace. The Comte was of a more moderate frame of mind than the more violent radicals. The Estates-General debated many of the policies with nobles resisting any change, radicals wanting reform, and moderates, like the Comte favoring a slower change. Mme. de Tesse disagreed with her husband and was concerned about handing too much power to the people. The debate continued until July 14, 1789, when the Bastille was stormed.
Tott was with Tesse at the Versailles on October 5, 1789 when the people arrived in anger, throwing stones, mounting sculpted heads of the royals on pikes, and demanding to see the King and Queen. Tott and the others were kept at Versailles until the riot dispersed. Lafayette arrived and begged King Louis to concede to at least some of their demands. King Louis signed a declaration of rights and was taken prisoner.
After the King and Queen were imprisoned, riots continued and nobles plotted their escape. Madame de Tesse escaped with Tott and her sister, Marie, to Switzerland while the Comte remained in France.
In Switzerland, Tesse's new home became a haven for emigres. They lived a more downscale life, but Tesse and her charges managed to have money saved. They were generous, especially to emigres who were left in worse conditions than they were. The sisters spent a great deal of time gardening, reading novels, and befriending other emigres.
Tesse fell ill and was mostly bed ridden and depressed. Tott, however, hung out with younger people who were in good health, hopeful spirits, and hoped to make the most of their move. One of those young people was Antoine, Vicomte d'Agoult who was dashing, handsome, somewhat self-absorbed, and was married, but solely for wealth and was separated from his wife.
Agoult was a good friend of novelist, Choderlos de Laclos, author of Les Liasons Dangereuses/Dangerous Liasions and was rumored to be the inspiration for the Visconte de Valmont, the scandalous sexual predator from the novel. Even though Laclos had many inspirations for his characters, Agoult still was something of a rake and a lady's man. His reputation did not sit well with the Comtesse de Tesse and she did not approve of his relationship with her foster daughter.
This relationship caused dissension in the once close relationship between Tesse and Tott. Tesse treated her foster daughter with frosty silence. She solicited help from her husband and Tott's father, both of whom expressed their disapproval bluntly. Tesse complained about being treated unfairly. Tott continued to side with Agoult insisting that their relationship was not immoral. Tesse said them being together was enough. Tott and Agoult spent all of their time together and were very passionate in their physical contact.
The Tesses and Tott acquired a reputation for generosity. They helped many emigres, especially some who were clergy. They fed them with food from their garden. When the Comte joined his family in Switzerland, he purchased various household goods and his wife and foster daughter dispersed them to the poor. Gasper writes that when one of their friends was so poor that they acquired a habit of shoplifting, the Tesses reimbursed the shopkeepers for the losses.
The Comte purchased a new cassock for an Abbe who had been deprived of his during his escape.
Despite the generous spirit and the return of the Comte, the relationship between Tott and Tesse was still fractured. Tott resumed painting, almost to vent out her frustrations. She painted the portrait of many emigres, including Joseph-Luc de Vezet, a deputy of the Estates-General with whom Tott had a lively intellectual discourse, and Jean-Joseph Mournier, future advisor of Napoleon.
Agoult returned to Tott's life, while Tesse continued to treat him with cold politeness. She permitted him to visit because she knew that Tott was an adult and her passionate nature would cause her to follow him to France, bringing more trouble on herself. Tesse acted as chaperone and was able to weigh Agoult's vain character. This made her even more against Agoult.
Gasper herself believed that Agoult genuinely loved Tott and his traveling long distances to see her proved it. "It is curious that Mme de Tesse, who professed to love Sophie so much, doubted that anybody else could love her," Gasper said.
Tott's father's death in 1793 did not warm any feelings. The Baron de Tott died, in poverty owing money to many including the Tesses. Tott offered to pay her father's debts, but Tesse coldly refused.
While Tesse was away, Tott wrote letters to Agoult. Tesse worried that gossip would spread that she permitted the affair under her roof. The two's arguments became more heated as Tesse accused Tott of being ungrateful and Tott accused her foster mother of being a tyrant.
Tott and Agoult's romance intensified. When he visited, she invited him to her bedroom, no longer caring about propriety or pleasing her foster mother.
She then informed Tesse that she was returning all possessions and valuables and would live in a convent. Agoult helped her to leave. Tesse formally accepted Tott's request and Tott left her forever. Tott wrote one letter explaining her reasons and Tesse returned a cold and indifferent response, telling her that the estrangement was permanent. To the end of her life, Tesse refused to read or open any letters from Sophie de Tott. The Tesses left for Germany with Tott's sister, Marie leaving Tott behind in Switzerland.
Many of the Tesses and Tott's friends and relatives fell to the guillotine or were imprisoned. Agoult helped Tott to join the Royalist network who wanted to bring the Bourbons back as constitutional monarchs.
In 1795, she returned to France on a secret mission as "Mlle de Tott, musician." She saw all allusions to the monarchy removed, monks and nuns in exile, former convents and monasteries used as hostels or storage, and the corrupt new rulers living in luxury and assuming total control.
Tott moved to Hamburg, Germany where she rented a studio to earn a living painting portraits and hosting musical events. Among her portraits were Young Woman in White, which may have been of her sister, Marie and she may have painted another one of a woman who might have been her other sister, Angelique. She also painted various royalists, including Mme. Isaac Morier.
She continued writing to Agoult and used her home as a hub for the royalist network. She and the other royalists supported the arrival of Comte de Provence, who assumed the title of Louis XVIII. Other royalists that she welcomed included Antoine Rivarol, a satirist, and Marquis de la Porte, a former governor of the King and considered the "oracle" of the royalists.
Besides painting, in 1798, Tott also wrote the novel, Pauline de Vergies, ou Lettres de Madame de Staincis, Publiees par Claire de Tott (Pauline de Vergies, or Madame de Staincis's Letters, Published by Claire de Tott.). The plot involves a young woman, Pauline, in the care of a wealthy couple. Pauline makes unsuitable friends despite objections from her adopted mother. Pauline refuses to marry, but has a serious courtship with an older widower. She turns his offer down. Pauline becomes ill and depressed to the point of severe mental instability. She briefly vanishes, but then returns to France, dying. She confesses that she loved a married man and vowed to never marry anyone else.
The novel is filled with sensibilities that were so prevalent in 18th century novels, but shows many of the similar struggles that Tott dealt with being an unmarried woman with an active love life.
Oddly enough, the Revolution gets scant mention as though Tott did not want to relive those events in fiction as she did in reality.
Gasper wrote, "All the elements in (Tott's) life and experience have been rearranged like beads in a kaleidoscope. She put into this story all the intense suffering and agonized, thwarted she had suffered firstly for the Chevalier de Pougens and then for the Vicomte d'Agoult…. Although, the French Revolution is not ostensibly present in the novel, the discourse of tyranny and liberty, despotism and rights, recurs constantly in Pauline's personal predicament."
Gasper also sees Pauline de Vergies as an attack on sensibility, deep unchecked emotion which Tott suffered from most of her life. (Which would later be characterized as Anxiety, Depression, and other mood disorders. )
Gasper wrote, "The story of Pauline de Vergies is a prolonged cry of anguish from an intelligent woman who has to suppress her emotion until she is going mad, and finds that she has no bearable existence in the society where she finds herself. Love does not have a happy ending and independence is not an option."
During her time in Germany, Tott acted as an informer, supporter, and channel for communications for a secret network of royalist activists. When Napoleon Bonaparte became First Consul in 1799, his secret service pursued all opponents against him, including those in Germany. Hamburg was no longer safe and many emigres fled.
Tott fled to England with her painting tools. One of her letters was confiscated and she was declared a conspirator against Napoleon. She knew that she could not return to France or she would face execution.
Upon Tott's arrival in England, she continued to receive various commissions, particularly of emigrated royalists, like the Duchesse de Guiche and her daughter, Corisande de Gramont. Those portraits were accepted for the annual exhibition of the Royal Academy of Somerset House in 1801.
Gasper wrote that Tott's acceptance was an honor and a stepping stone to bring acknowledgement to her professional career. "The fact that she got in at the first attempt indicates that she was in a different category from most of the emigres who turned to painting for a living," Gasper wrote.
One of Tott's biggest commissions in England was that of the Princess of Wales, Caroline of Brunswick. As Gasper's previous book about Elizabeth Craven reveals, Caroline had a troubled marriage with the Prince Regent. The two were constantly at odds. Caroline was derided by her husband for her plain appearance. He flaunted his mistresses in front of her and she was ignored by the court. Caroline however had many supporters, one of whom was Craven who wrote a play in her honor.
Another was Sophie de Tott, who found her friendly and charming. Princess Caroline presented a unique challenge for Tott, to remove any blemishes in her appearance. "(Caroline) was no beauty and the chief aim of any portrait was to flatter her and disguise her squint, luckily something that (Tott) was able to do," Gasper wrote. Unfortunately, the painting was interrupted when the King of England felll ill and Caroline had to accompany her husband at Windsor. The delay gave Tott severe anxiety, since the cost of living was high in England, she was desperate for money, and she may have ended her relationship with Agoult since they stopped writing when she arrived in England. (A footnote explained that Tott apparently never got to finish her portrait of Caroline, since her name is not listed as one of the artists who were known to have painted portraits of her.)
Tott had better luck in painting a portrait of Louis-Joseph, Prince de Conde, a former commander who led the royalist army. He was familiar with Tott's secret agent work, as well as her artistic talent. She painted a portrait of Conde in uniform holding a baton and sword, with a battlefield behind him. He is revealed as a man of deep pride and courage in battle. However, because his face is drawn and careworn, the painting also reveals the emotional toll that a life of war and exile had done to him.
After her painting of Conde, Tott received several commissions and had a steady stream of work. She was particularly fond of painting her fellow emigres and supporting causes that were close to her heart. Gasper wrote, "(Tott) became a committed artist with a purpose in life, engagee."
Among those she painted was the Comte de Artrois, called "Monsieur" by his fellow exiles, because he was younger brother to Louis XVIII. Tott painted him twice, once in a gaudy scarlet coat wearing a cheerful affable expression on his face and another with him dressed in a black coat with a somber, but benevolent expression.
Another portrait made at the time revealed Tott's kinship with fellow creative people. This was of Marie-Martin Marcel, Vicomte de Marin. He made a living as a professional musician. He played the harp and piano and composed chamber music. Tott's portrait of him revealed him as a creative refined genius. He represented many of the qualities that Tott felt were left behind in the Revolution.
In 1802, Britain and France made peace and France allowed its exiles to return. Tott was aware that her reputation as a secret agent would still be questioned. She also refused to recognize Bonaparte's leadership, so she opted to remain in exile.
However, Tott continued to paint portraits of people including Antoine-Philippe, Duc de Montpensier, Sir George Provost, Governor of Canada, the Marechal de Coigny, and Lady Crawfurd, wife of the British ambassador to Hamburg. Her growing reputation allowed Tott to receive a commission to paint retiring MP, William Knox.
One of her most significant portraits of this era was that of General Jean-Charles Pichegru. He was deported to Guinea but escaped and was involved in a conspiracy to overthrow Bonaparte. Unlike most royalists, he came from a poor background and was promoted by merit. However, he turned against the Revolution's bloodier tactics and spent some time in prison on Devil's Island. Britain provided money and transport for him to lead an uprising to restore Louis XVIII to his throne. This unfortunately ended in failure and Pichegru's imprisonment and death in prison.
Tott's portrait revealed him as a 40 year old man who had prematurely aged by war and harsh imprisonment. This portrait reveals how the exile and suffering took an emotional and physical toll on the emigres. However, Gasper revealed that Tott's portrait didn't show a man defeated, but determined. "(Pichegru) is a different kind of hero, who makes up for in experience and understanding what he may lack in breeding or polish. By painting him, in uniform, (Tott) was making a strong anti-Bonaparte statement."
Her paintings began to take on more obvious political overtones, such as one depicting General Amedee de Willot in prison. The conditions were described by Willot. Another was a double portrait of British Lt. Col. John Moore and Egyptian Mameluke leader, Elfi Bey.
Bey in particular captured the interest of the English public because of his foreign dress and behavior. Perhaps, Tott was reliving her own arrival in France from Constantinople all those years ago.
Gasper wrote, "After so many years of intensive work, de Tott had achieved professional renown. She had pitted her paintbrush against the might of Bonaparte's army, with the result that she had become at this point, a successful artist."
In 1804, Tott met and befriended a familiar face: Elizabeth Baroness Craven, Princess Berkeley, Magravine of Brandenburg-Anspach. In her introduction, Gasper wrote that she became interested in writing about Tott while working on her book about Craven. She was intrigued that while Tott wrote about Craven, Craven, who was fond of documenting nearly everything, barely acknowledged Tott. Gasper's research and speculations may have discovered why the two women, who were similar in independence, strength, and talent would be at odds.
Along with other emigres, Tott was a frequent guest at Brandenburg House, the Hammersmith country home of Craven and her second husband. Brandenburg was the location of many intellectual discussions and amateur performances.
Tott and Craven had similar personalities, interests, and acquaintances so the two women developed a friendship.
The fact that Craven had been to Constantinople, Tott's birth place, and wrote of her travels also led to many discussions between them.
Tott was drawn particularly by Craven's generosity and kindness. Craven hired an acquaintance as chamberlain, mostly because he was a talented actor. She also continued to pay a pension to a former maid when she retired to France and despite the international conflicts made sure she continued to receive it. Craven commissioned her new friend to paint portraits of her husband and youngest son, Keppel. By 1805, she appointed Tott as a lady of honor. Perhaps, Tott bonded with Craven not just because she was another independent talented woman, but also because she had a second chance to relive the mentor-student/mother-daughter bond that she had and lost with Comtesse de Tesse.
At first Tott did not get on with Keppel, Craven's youngest son. As mentioned in Craven's book, Craven and her first husband's marriage ended in divorce. To obtain the divorce, Craven surrendered custody of all of her children, except Keppel. Since Keppel was the only child left in Craven's life, she rather spoiled and indulged him. They had a very close bond, but Keppel felt threatened by his mother's new lady of honor.
He felt that his mother was too generous and overspent on her friends. He believed that Tott was a mercenary adventuress. The only compliment that he initially paid her was that she captured her sitter's likeness rather well. Tott tried her best to be polite to Keppel, used to being treated as an outsider because of her background and politics.
The death of Craven's second husband, The Magrave in 1806 changed things. His household was left in debt and without ready cash. Craven was in financial odds with her eldest son, Lord Craven. Keppel received sympathies from Tott and begano to see the artist in a new light. Tott was much older, but was still attracted to her friend's son. Gasper hinted that there might have been a slight Oedipal Complex, since Tott was so much like Craven in personality that Keppel may have had a filial as well as romantic attraction towards her. Gasper wrote "(Tott) had always been inclined to love not wisely, but too well; it was the story of her life, and this appears to have been her last unwise love."
Much of Tott and Keppel's romance is speculation on Gasper's part but she provides compelling evidence that it happened. For example, Keppel's journal describes Tott as "X", the way he referred to his lovers, including a male one.
One of the most important pieces of evidence that Tott and Keppel may have had an affair is that Keppel fathered a child during this time. The child, a boy, Augustus Denham Craven, was fostered by Craven but the mother was never revealed, except some iffy records that refer to a Mme Derville (who may have been a known courtesan, a married woman, or a pseudonym). Gasper believes that instead Augustus' mother may have been Tott. As he matured, Augustus was described as attractive but having an artistic temperament (possibly inherited from his artistically temperamental mother.)
While Tott was 48, Gasper speculated that this fact may have made her careless in her relations with Keppel. Keppel's writing and correspondence seem to be in code giving his lover secret names like "Aspasia" and suggests that she is a well off intelligent friend of his mother's.
In early 1807, Tott made an unscheduled stop away from London, to give birth perhaps. For a woman in her position, an illegitimate child would have been a disaster. The fact that if Tott did have a child, then she couldn't acknowledge it but that Keppel not only could, but have it raised in his mother's house reveals the double standard that both Tott and Craven had to deal with their whole lives.
There are some questions that run throughout Augustus' life such as who painted a portrait of him that was clearly in Tott's style. Why was Augustus sent to a private school in Paris instead of in England? Why was Mme Derville listed as Augustus' mother? These questions suggest but don't give the concrete answer that Augustus is Sophie de Tott's son.
Tott and Craven worked out an agreement in which Tott would waive her pension, so Craven could keep her family home. In addition, Craven promised to care for Keppel (and possibly Tott's) child for life this same time. Gasper believed that this formal severing of ties was more than likely triggered by Tott giving birth to Keppel's child. This estrangement is possibly why Craven never referred to Tott in her memoirs as if cutting her off from her memories.
By 1808, Tott resumed painting (perhaps to get back to work and to provide an emotional release from her loss). She painted Nathaniel Curzon, 2nd Lord Scarsdale and his wife. The picture depicts a fashionable man in a Scarlet coat. Tott also painted an unknown woman holding a drawing of a boy. The fact that she is holding a paintbrush suggests that she is another female artist, possibly Maria Cosway.
Tott received a prestigious commission to paint a portrait of Countess Ludwika Lanckronska, the wife of Polish nobleman Count Antoni Lanckronski. Tott depicted her in classical robes, and having a vigorous cheerful expression.
In October 1807, the Comte de Provence arrived with his entourage which included Tott's former lover, Vicomte Antoine d'Agoult. They seem to have had a friendly, but not romantic reunion. Tott even painted his portrait revealing her once attractive lady killer of an ex as a gray haired distinguished gentleman.
Many of Tott's friends and family returned to France. In 1799, her sister returned to France with her family where they pragmatically accepted the leadership. They were able to regain prosperity through connections with the Bonapartes.
The Tesses returned in 1808 and even got some of their property back. They both died in 1814.
Tott, stubborn as ever, remained in England until after Bonaparte's disasterous campaign in Russia, then his forced abdication. Finally, Tott joined the other emigres who returned home to France.
When Louis XVIII retained the throne,he gave Tott a position as a lady in waiting to his daughter in law, the Duchess d'Angouleme, who was the highest ranking woman in France since Louis's wife died. Tott painted a portrait of the Duchess in 1815 which was exhibited at the Paris Salon. The portrait was described as deeply melancholy, perhaps in reference to the many deaths within the Duchess's family because of the Revolution and exile
Tott reunited with some old friends and family upon her return. Because both were in the royal ott spent a great deal of time with Agoult whose wife finally died, but he remarried Comtesse de Choisy, for influence.
She also reunited with her sister, Marie-Francoise, the Duchess de Liancourt. She painted two of her niece's portraits.
Also because of her title, Tott received many perks including an apartment in Versailles and in Paris lived in the Tuileries. However, the new perks did not mean wealth. The French monarchy was not rich. The treasury was empty and a volcanic eruption in 1816 in the East Indies spread ash and cloud dust into the air to cause crops to wither and die. Tott was one of several titled ladies who by 1822 were on a list of of titled ladies who received charity donations from the Catholic Church.
Despite her penury, Tott was known to be kind and generous. Joseph Comte de Rafelis de Broves, commander of the Order of St. Louis wrote a letter thanking Tott for her kindness and assistance in persuading Angouleme to pay for his son's college fees. Perhaps, Tott was thinking of another young child who was being cared for by his paternal grandmother, but with whom Tott had no contact.
In 1820, the king's nephew Duc de Berry was assasinated. The Duchess d'Angouleme career for his widow and children. Tott probably spent time with those children and grew fond of them.
In 1824, Louis XVIII died and he was succeeded by Comte d'Artois, Charles X. He was conservative, even more so after the death of his son. He wanted to abolish a constitutional monarchy. He gave aristocrats the right to reclaim property confiscated during the Revolution. Tott applied to regain ownership of the Chaville estate. After several legal entanglements, she received it. However in 1826, the decision was overturned but she received a monetary compensation which she used to buy a house in the village of Versailles.
After Charles X was dethroned after the July Revolution of 1830, Louis-Philippe, "The Citizen King" ascended the throne and retained a constitutional monarchy. With the departure of the Duchess d'Angouleme, Tott had no official position but was awarded a pension by the new king. At 72, she retired from court and devoted herself to charity work.
She became so known for her charitable work that when she died at the age of 90, her obituary listed that and not her artwork or her novel. Gasper's book puts Tott and her abilities front and center. She is no longer anonymous. Sophie de Tott was a passionate woman of strong passions and immense creativity. She now is a name and has a legacy.
