Summary

The story is dedicated to an unknown aristocrat in the year 1845.

It is December, 1612. A young man in shabby clothes in Paris can be seen pacing in front of a house on the Rue de Grand-Augustins. He gathers his nerve and knocks on the door, asking to see Maitre Francois Porbus. Inside, he knows Henri IV’s court painter is at work. It gives him a feeling of artistic inspiration. The young man is like many other young artists, who feel as if the world is theirs for the taking. Compared to the master, however, the poor but talented young man is nothing. Yet he knows he would never have come to such a place had it not been for a twist of chance. The young man is admitted into the studio of Porbus by an elderly man, whom the young man studies...