Читала на ночь дневник американского посланника (1837-1839) в Петербурге Джорджа М. Далласа. Очень хорошие записи: обстоятельные, деловые, и автор - что редкость - описывает и процедуры светских приемов (меня интересуют, конечно, придворные ритуалы), одежду, манеры и интерьеры высшего дворянства.
Забавно, например, про известный салон Лавалей (среди прочего, родители жены декабриста Трубецкого) - у графини (нет ни одного мемуариста, который бы не отмечал исключительно несимпатичный вид графини и ее выдающееся декольте) было невероятное приданое, происхождение графа несколько скомпрометировано торговыми делами (отсюда слухи о том, что он парикмахер). Даллас вот пишет, что она похожа на переросший мухомор, однако будуар ее - точная копия комнаты в Помпеях, в залах - невероятное собрание антиков и картин хороших мастеров.
"Собрание было тем, что здесь называют “раут” — без танцев, начинается в одиннадцать часов и заканчивается менее чем через два часа, — и состояло оно в основном из замужних дам от тридцати до семидесяти лет. Не думаю, чтобы там присутствовало хотя бы четыре девушки в нашем понимании этого слова. Наряды были чрезвычайно красивы, но некоторые из матрон изрядно шокировали мои американские представления чересчур щедрой демонстрацией бюста".
"I went, accompanied by my daughter, to a soiree at the Countess Laval's. It is one of the handsomest and most richly-furnished houses in St. Petersburg. Nothing more strongly shows the magic of wealth. The Count
is said to have come here originally as a French hair-dresser, and certainly looks the origin at this moment admirably; he is short, mean, and insignificant in appearance. The Countess is the personation of an indented toad-stool, — fat, coarse, short, and ugly. They are, however, both very kind persons and seem deservedly favourites. He is one of the four " Maitres de la Cour."
His establishment presents many points worthy of ad miration. It is on the largest scale of private dwellings in a city where all such dwellings are palaces; its various apartments are adorned with the utmost profusion and with great judgment; its largest saloon, an oblong square of about thirty-five by twenty-five feet, with vaulted ceiling, and walls covered with deep crimson satin drapery, is hung with choice paintings of the best Italian and French masters; adjoining this is an apartment of about the same dimensions, whose floor is ancient mosaic from the Island of Caprese, and whose
sides are crowded with specimens of antique sculpture, vases, and curiosities. I noticed especially here a most exquisite antique Gorgon's head, another of Augustus Caesar, and several that I could not identify, — the money expended in this single room must have been incalcula ble; beyond this, and after passing a narrow passage, I reached a most beautiful boudoir, modelled with the most elaborate exactness, in all its colours, shape, size,
and arrangements, after an excavated chamber of Pompeii.
The party was what is here called a rout, — without dancing, — beginning at eleven o'clock and closing in less than two hours, and it was composed
chiefly of married ladies from thirty to seventy years of age. I should not suppose there were four girls, as we would call them, present. The dresses were exceedingly handsome, but some of the matrons shocked my American notions not a little by a most profuse display of the bust. Conversation does not seem to be as much a pursuit as it should be; generally speaking, gentlemen arranged themselves in a dark mass on one side of the saloon, respectfully and vacantly gazing at the ladies, who were closely packed on divans, ottomans, or sofas, on the other side or in the centre".
