A Biographical Dictionary of Fiddlers di A. Mason Clarke
3 18 Biographical [Dictionary of Fiddlers.
Viotti conducted the wine business for several years, but, as before stated, it all ended in failure. He was now compelled to resume his legitimate profession, ancf through the influence of some of his friends in Paris, he was appointed Director of the Grand Op6ra. Here he found the duties of his office too arduous for his age and state of health, and shortly afterwards he retired on a small pension. In the year 1822 he returned once more to this country, and passed the remainder of his days in quietude. M. Eymar, a celebrated patron of the arts, has thus described some of the moral qualities of Viotti.* " There never existed a man who attached such great value to the simplest gifts of nature; there never was a child who more ardently enjoyed them. A violet found under the grass would transport him with joy; or the gathering of fresh fruit render him the happiest of mortals ; he found in the one, a perfume ever new, in the other a flavour always more and more delicious. His organs, thus delicate and sensible, seemed to have preserved the impressibility of early youth; whilst stretched on the grass, he would pass whole hours in admiring the colour or inhaling the odour of a rose. Everything that belonged to
* Inserted ic the '* Decade philosophique et litteraire.
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Biographical Dictionary Fiddlers Paris Director Grand Op Eymar Viotti There Decade His
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