Seized by Love by Susan Johnson Read Free Book Online

courage it took for Kramskoy and a group of fellow
students to resign from the Academy in a dispute over subject matter. How the
"Mutiny of 13" had become the "Peredvizhniki" or
"Wanderers," basing their approach on N. Chernyshev-ski's revolutionary
book
Aesthetic Relations of Art and Reality,
which stressed the
superiority of reality over its representation in art.
    "You see, my parents,
too, painted from nature; painted outside and not exclusively in the studio. It
was revolutionary in their generation, but they were acquainted with many
French painters who vacationed at Barbizon and worked directly out of
doors."
    "Ah, yes, the vanguard
of the—what are they calling those young painters in Paris?—the
Impressionists?"
    "Yes, that's exactly
right!" Alisa replied in delight. Since the death of her parents she'd not
had a single opportunity to discuss art with anyone. "And Repin…" she
breathed ecstatically, "such subject matter; it brings tears to one's
eyes."
    "His new painting
'Volga Boatmen' was just finished last year after three years of preparation.
Marvelously stunning when I viewed it," Nikki said.
    "Oh!" another
gasp of excitement, and Alisa chatted away volubly, free from restraint. Nikki
had only to murmur appropriate responses intermittently and he was not, after
all, completely untutored in the new movements in art. Having lived in Paris
for two years, he toured Europe often and extensively, and when lured to the
new art exhibits by Countess Amalienborg's desire to be seen at the avant-garde
displays, he was not altogether unseeing. Behind Nikki's normal posture of
indifference was a keen mind and a perspicuity beyond the common. He observed
much without appearing to. As a matter of fact, on the occasion of his purchase
of the Shishkin landscape, he'd also impulsively bought an extremely small
Savrassov still life which he'd sent to his mother and until the present moment
completely forgotten.
    "I have some of the
catalogues in the library at the hunting lodge and also the Shishkin
landscape," he lied. "Perhaps you would like to come over for tea
some afternoon and see them," he casually suggested. He would send a
message to Ivan this evening in Petersburg and have the catalogues and painting
delivered to him post haste, wherever they were.
    "No! No!" Alisa
exclaimed in highly nervous agitation. "I couldn't—I'm sorry, I'd love to,
but—" she stopped in a near state of panic.
    Were his intentions that
transparent? Nikki wondered uncomfortably, and decided not to press the
suggestion. He quickly changed the subject, exerting his charm to calm the
unusual display of alarm his invitation had occasioned.
    Nikki couldn't have known
that fear of her husband's actions rather than Nikki's had prompted her
inordinate manifestation of fear. Valdemar Forseus had on two recent instances
beaten Alisa, not grievously, but enough to frighten her. After years of almost
total indifference, since the birth of their daughter Forseus had once again
begun, infrequently, to press her with bizarre and unwelcome demands. Alisa was
dreadfully terrified, and more sure every day that soon she would have to take
her daughter and leave her husband regardless of the consequences. The last few
months had become so increasingly intolerable, she now wondered daily how much
longer she could last.
    Nikki restricted himself to
polite and innocuous inanities for the next fifteen minutes, ultimately
succeeding in restoring Alisa's lively spirits and bringing the delightfully
ingenuous smile to her lips. Feeling it best to depart now that her cheerful
disposition was reestablished, Nikki rose from his relaxed sprawl and, towering
magnificently above her, remarked equably, "Perhaps if you're sketching
here tomorrow, I could bring my catalogues to show you."
    "I don't know. I
can't, I mean… I don't think so," she stammered falteringly.
    "It doesn't signify if
you're otherwise engaged," he reassured her. "I'm rather at loose
ends at the moment,