The Versatile Master Artist

In the movie,

Cleopatra wrapped in a carpet covered with gold powder, enters Emperor Caesar’s tent in Rome, speaking with a seductive charm.

Though she seemed to be seeking pleasure, she was so ambitious and enchanting, like a glass of poison laced with gold powder.

Even a hero like Emperor Caesar could not resist taking it all in, sowing the seeds for the future collapse and division of Rome.

”Miss, did I recite this line correctly?”

Anna turned her head and asked the sensuous lady, who was confused and puzzled by the brief exchange in French between her and Ole, unable to understand.

”No, it’s just a bit too cold, not quite... uh, not charming enough. Sister, if you want to develop in the performing arts, the enchanting route like Cleopatra isn’t quite suitable for you. You’re not that type. I think your acting style is more like Hepburn rather than Elizabeth Taylor.”

The actress looked Anna up and down, offering her professional point of view.

”No need, someone else is enchantingly eager, covered in gold powder, trying to crawl into my bed immediately.”

Anna joked with a light laugh, turning around and said, ”Ole, if one day we went to do theater, it seems I would be more suitable to play Caesar than you.”

Lady Countess did not seem interested in continuing the conversation on this topic.

”Hold your check, I need to rest. If you wish to stay here overnight, the butler will show you to your room.”

Anna pressed the small bell on the side, preparing to call the aide to wheeled her away.

”Cousin Anna, I’m serious!”

Ole was a bit angry!

He was so sincere, confessing with such deep emotion, something he never expressed to anyone other than Cousin Anna.

If Ole were to stare into some girl’s eyes at the bar and say such words,

The emotional investment level, he felt, was enough to attract a whole platoon of girls.

But facing his confession, Anna only treated him as a child performing a drama, leaving Ole very dissatisfied and frustrated.

He grabbed Anna’s wrist.

”Mr. Ole von Krueger, you are out of line.”

Anna slowly raised her head, gazing at her cousin beside her.

Even if Miss Elina could stand up, she would still be a head shorter than Ole, her wrist slender and soft.

Yet when this girl, only two months older than him, called him by his full name. Ole’s muscles trembled instinctively.

At this moment,

Ole seemed to see the spirit of his godmother reviving in his cousin, not needing to shout aloud, yet naturally imposing.

He then turned into that little boy punished to stand in the garden.

”You know? Actually, today when I received that oil painting, I was very angry. Why make me spell it out, making us both embarrassed?”

Anna’s eyes carried a mocking look: ”Was proposing to me your own idea, or your father’s?”

”This...”

”Am I wrong?” she said softly.

Every year on her birthday or Christmas, the girl received gifts from Ole’s father, Mr. Krueger.

Usually, it was a gold-plated pen, a dress pin, or a set of bone china tea set.

Never as valuable as this year.

Mr. Krueger, a seasoned banker in finance, unlike the ostentatious Cousin Ole, usually acted frugally and earnestly, even could be called stingy.

The gifts he gives to the family members were usually like those.

In Anna’s memory,

Mr. Krueger hadn’t even wanted to repair the holes in the velvet curtains of his study.

Bankers like him, when investing massively, must see returns, at the very least with deep meaning.

This time was no exception.

When Anna unscrewed the aluminum painting tube, she instantly understood what deep meaning the other wanted to convey.

An 18th-century oil painting by Madame Lebrun about Princess Teresa—it’s a perfect metaphor for the rise and fall of aristocracy, the honor of family, and the fate of artists.

Madame Lebrun gained fame due to the favor of Queen Mary and lived in exile after the fall of the Bourbon Dynasty.

The lady artist, Madame Lebrun, spent much of her later life in exile.

During the era when war clouds enveloped Europe, she was misunderstood as a supporter of monarchy; Russia treated her as a guest of honor due to her close relationship with the Bourbon Palace, making her the first female ”honorary teacher” since the establishment of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts.

And the subject of the portrait, Princess Teresa, was the other part of this metaphor.

Princess Teresa’s mother was Anna’s fellow countrywoman, Queen Mary, who held the title of Austrian Duchess, known for her extravagance, love of art, and ignorance of society.

It is well known,

She died on a guillotine designed by her own husband, and the eleven-year-old Princess Teresa lost her fertility for life due to prolonged rape and torture.

From a historical perspective,

The fate of Louis XVI’s family is naturally not so innocent; while the luxurious and dissolute royal family held endless parties in the Imperial Palace, and the beheaded queen became the most dissolute among all the dissolute people of the era, with a whole palace full of fashionable evening dresses, countless people were scantily clad, displaced.

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”All the gifts of fate have already been secretly priced.”

——O. Cwieg ”The Beheaded Queen”

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And the fate of the little girl seemed like a malicious joke played on her by God.