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- [00:02]
A
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- [01:15]
B
Welcome to the New Books Network. Hello everyone, and welcome to Academic Life. This is a podcast for your academic journey and beyond. I'm the producer and your host, Christina Gessler, and today I'm joined by Jennifer Dassel, who is the author of the Club Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque, Paris. Welcome to the show, Jennifer.
- [01:41]
C
Thank you, Christina. Happy to be here.
- [01:43]
B
I am so glad that you're here and we get to learn about this club. It sounds like it has not been written about much recently. You had to dig into a lot of old archives, old newspapers, to even find out about how it existed and what it was. Before we start digging into that for our listeners, will you please tell us a bit about yourself?
- [02:02]
C
Yes, I am an art historian by training. I was an art curator for 13 years at the State Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art here in Raleigh, North Carolina. And about five years ago I left the museum and now I am an art historian for hire. I spend most of my time writing, including writing this book, and I actually also give lectures on luxury vacations, which is a fun element as well.
- [02:30]
B
You tell us in the book that this really is an undertold story. How did it come to your attention?
- [02:35]
C
It came to my attention completely by coincidence. I was on a book tour for my last book, and I was giving a speech down in Naples, Florida, when a woman who was in the audience came up to me after and said, have you ever heard of the American Girls Club in Paris? And for a moment, I thought she was about to tell me. It sounded to me a little bit like literary fiction, or. We know. I. I don't love the term women's lit, but they're chick lit. But that's what it sounded like to me. And she said, no, no, this was a real place that was around in the late 19th and early 20th century, before World War I, specifically to support American women living and working in Paris, studying art. And I. My professional background backs up explicitly into this time period. And even though my specialty has long been French art, I was really surprised to know that I had never heard about this American art community. So that's really what gave me the impetus to want to jump in and do the research and find out more about the club.
- [03:40]
B
And you take us right into that. In the prologue, you. You say that in 2021, you learned a secret which you've just shared. And you say, well, maybe it wasn't a secret to everyone, but as a longtime art historian, you had never discovered it in all of your study of the history of art. And you really start taking us into place. You say it's a blink and you miss it. Turn of the century structure in Paris that for two decades successfully sheltered, supported, and spawned a generation of American women artists in a way that nothing else could could, or if truth be told, that perhaps no one else would. You go on to talk about how it gave them opportunity, paths that they could determine for themselves. It removed a lot of judgment and obstacles that were in their way. And it was known by a number of names. It was called the American Art Students Club, the American Girls Club for Artists, the American Girls Art Club, the Ladies Club, the American Girls Club in Paris, or just the Girls Club. But they're all talking about the club. And the book really takes us into how the book was formed. We meet a couple of people who are going to be crucial to the club even coming into existence. One is Elizabeth Mills Reid, and The other is Mrs. Newell. And we really start learning about how they're going to be important. Around page 43, can you talk about how these two women came upon the idea that a place such as this was necessary?
- [05:07]
C
Yes. So Helen Newell is the name of the first woman. She was the wife of an Episcopal clergyman that was associated with the American. It's called the American Cathedral In Paris, or at the time it was called the American Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. And part of her work with her husband was ministering to the student community in Paris. And at this time that student community was very large and very international. But the Newells were connected especially with obviously American students, since they were part of this American cathedral. And they would have men and women come over on a weekly basis to have dinner or to have tea at their home. And they noticed that there was a lot more support for male students. They were by far the majority. But this was really a critical point in art where more American women were coming over to Europe, especially to Paris, than any time in history. But they didn't have as much access. They were being banned from the main art school, the Ecole de Beaux Art in Paris. There were a far fewer number of places where they could go and receive what was considered to be beneficial lodging, you know, not someplace sketchy that they were just renting, you know, on a random street somewhere. There were really far more places for men to be able to access in restaurants, in public spheres, in private studios than women. And so Helen Newell really thought, you know, there's more that can be done here. And then most likely through the American Cathedral in Paris, she met the wife of the minister to France. So basically the French ambassador, American ambassador to France, and that was Elizabeth Mills Reed, who was a philanthropist, born in California and kind of lived bicoastally. And when she and her husband and their two kids moved to Paris for his ambassadorship, she met Mrs. Newell. Mrs. Newell told her about this need and I think it really matched up with Elizabeth Mills Reid's own background. She had been in Paris as a teenager and had gone to school, basically high school in Paris. So I think she understood what it was like to be away from home and to have fewer abilities and less access success than you would if you were otherwise part of a larger network. And so these women came together and said, you know what, we can do something, let's form a club. And essentially that club began very small. It began with having a place where women could go and just have a warm cup of tea, meet with somebody who was experiencing their like minded everyday experiences. And the idea was that if you were a young woman studying art or music in Paris, basically between the ages of 18 and 40, you could be part of this club. And that's really how it all began. And then it just blew up from there.
- [08:00]
B
And you tell us that that the original idea was, you know, a small gathering space and it had a number of the features that you talked about, they could have a cup of tea, they could read English language publications. In the small library they set up. There were some, some church services offered to them. They could exchange ideas and meet like minded people. And it would focus, it would function sort of as a, as a social club, which was something that had long existed as an idea, but this one was founded around this particular principle. And on page 44 you say that could have been the end of the story. The formation of a suite reading room and meeting center for American girls. But the club's popularity, as well as the ongoing and varied needs of its primary audience led to the creation of something much bigger and more wide reaching. Can you take us into how it grew? Because it became something very different than that, than original germ of an idea.
- [08:57]
C
Yes, exactly. As you were saying, the popularity of the club, I think immediately just burst onto the scene. People were really excited about this ability to come and spend time with people who were going to maybe a different art school school, but was living nearby, you know, all the ways that people want to come together and socialize and get to know one another. And very quickly, part of the other thing that it looked like women could use more access to was a, an inexpensive but very safe place to live. So Elizabeth Mills Reid really took the lead here and said, you know what, I think we can find a larger structure that we can then rent rooms. And so people can stay for a number of days, they could stay for weeks that they like, or much longer and reside on the property. And at the same time, maybe we can offer them more than a cup of tea, maybe we can offer them some meals. And so at the end of 1892, leading into 1893, she found a structure in the 6th arrondissement of Paris near Montparnasse. And it was this 18th, 18th century building, been around for almost 200 years. And it was outfitted previously as a boys boarding school. So there were a lot of rooms, a lot of space, and they were able at the end of 1893 to open this place up as a larger, expanded version of the club that not only continued to have that reading room, library, access, but also an on site restaurant, a fully dedicated tea room, a space for a matron and on site concierge to live, to manage everything day to day, and, and then about 20 to 30 rooms over the period of 20 years that could then be rented on the long term or short term basis. So people could really appreciate the club from a lot of different arenas, angles at this point.
- [10:50]
B
And you, you give a shout out to Ada Lee Lewis. You want us to know that Reed and Newell were not alone in their intention to open an institution for the protection of foreign women living in Paris, nor were they the first to do so. You say that honor goes to Ada Lee Lewis, who is a British woman, and she opened the mission home for young English and American women in 1872. It had a slightly different idea behind it, but. But overall, women were having the idea that this type of philanthropy was important.
- [11:22]
C
Absolutely. And I love that aspect of women helping women because they obviously were not receiving that same, same kind of access from male supporters. So it's great to know that these women knew what was lacking and that they felt that they could do something about it. Elizabeth Mills Reed herself came from a philanthropic family. Her family was a very wealthy banking railroad, gold rush family from California. And her dad had really set an example for philanthropy and especially around healthcare. And that was something that Elizabeth Mills Reed carried on. But she also continued to fund the club and then its successor, which we can talk about maybe a little bit later, if we feel like it, throughout the rest of her life. And so I think this was a really special project for her that she must have felt very close to because she continued to have this place be somewhat of a really important element in her life so much that she called it her club. And she called the women who stayed there or were members of the club, she called them her girls for the entirety of the rest of her life. So she felt very drawn to the purpose of establishing and funding this place.
- [12:34]
B
Chapter six is called a Rambling Old Structure, and it takes us right there to the Building on page 49 in Figure 6 1, there's a postcard from around 1910, and it says American Art Students Club. And it shows the building and just looking at it, you can see why
- [12:52]
C
people wanted to go there.
- [12:54]
B
Later on in the book, you describe how the women felt upon arriving, and this picture really helps us understand that. However, you do say that while it was a perfect home for where it was situated, for things around it, the remaining buildings were sort of seedy. Can you talk about how it was situated with, you know, well stocked art supply shops and inexpensive cafes? The building itself had nice things in the neighborhood, but people didn't naturally arrive
- [13:19]
C
and think, wow, exactly. You know, there's one woman who talks about arriving in the middle of the night and she comes to the outside, is dropped off out the front doors, and she's looking around and basically thinks like, oh, is this it? Are you sure that my, my driver didn't make a mistake in dropping me off here? Because it doesn't look that great. This was Montparnasse before the area became really popular. It became really the center of the art and literary scene. I would say about 20 to 30 years later, between the world wars. And this is when, if you think about movies like Midnight in Paris, or if you're a literary person, into Gertrude Stein, Hemingway, the Fitzgerald's, that's the point in which Montparnasse becomes really the center of all things cultural in Paris. This is before that. So in some ways I like to think that Elizabeth Mills Reed and Helen Newell, you know, I thinking of them as being prescient in choosing this area. As you mentioned, there were a lot of art shops nearby, so several art academies were literally just around the corner. So there was already this student population. But by far it was not seen as a luxurious place to be, at least not at this point in history. The cool art place at this point was across Paris. It was up in Montmartre. So that's where people like Picasso and Modigliani, Matisse, all of them were hanging out. So it was still kind of secondary at this point. But the club building itself, as I mentioned, it had been around for almost 200 years and it was quite beautiful. It was this three story structure that had these gorgeous balconies and, and the little interior courtyard and gardens that I think were really welcoming. And that was something that I think really drew not only the founders, but as you mentioned, all of the women who came through. It was really considered this little quiet, peaceful corner of Paris where you could escape some of that seediness and have this really centering, calm space that was then really seen as this wonderful, safe arena for these women. And I think that probably went a long way for I would assume their morale during this time.
- [15:34]
B
And on page 50, you say even prior to the club's official reopening in 1893, its new location was the subject of much discussion. And as the site came with a compelling backstory and even more myths. You give us ghost stories, you give us all kinds of things. This building had gone through many lives.
- [15:52]
C
Yes, definitely. It began as far as we know. We don't totally know who built it, but there was this long rumor that the, the Duke of Chevreuse and his wife, the Duchess, lived there and had, you know, fanciful events and trysts, and that there was supposed to be an underground tunnel that led nearby to the Palais de Luxembourg, the Luxembourg palace that has never Been justified. I'm sure that was probably myth, but it sounds nice and it's obviously a romantic story. But we do know that it begins popping up in the, probably the early to mid-1800s as a porcelain factory. And it was something that became enough of a well known porcelain factory that they actually stocked porcelain for Versailles for a period of time, which is rather impressive. And then it became an orthopedic, like a, basically a doctor's office, a surgery. There were notes about there being a little gymnasium and some exercise machines, hobby horses that were on site. And then finally it translated around mid 18th, excuse me, mid 19th century, into being that boys boarding school for a while. And then there became, I think, enough boarding school and other academies nearby that there just was too much competition. So that school shut down and conveniently it was ready and available to be leased when Elizabeth Mills Reid came knocking. So it did have this long life. But I think this era in which she rented the club was really wonderful. It kind of turned the page on this building and brought it into this. I would, I like to say, you know, a more, a more beautiful and a more elegant period in its history.
- [17:36]
B
Chapter seven is called in the Midst of Luxury and Romance. And we open with meeting Frances Cranmere Greenham. At that point, she's Frances Cranmere and she steps out of a hackney carriage into the darkest of Nights in 1911. You say she pulls her coat tighter around her and she pauses for a moment before knocking at the large double doors, then painted cross green in front of her. This is a story I think you alluded to a moment before when she said, you know, she was wondering if the driver had brought her to the correct address. The street lamp nearby illuminated only so much and it looks plain, you call it boring. And she's wondering, is this place really her new Parisian home? Can you tell us the story of how she came to be there?
- [18:22]
C
Yes. Frances Cranmer, she was, oh, gosh, I can't even remember, from Minneapolis. I can't really remember actually off the top of my head where she's from. But she was one of the. And I, I say this with air quotes. She was an older student who came to Paris to study painting. So most women, I think, who came through were on the younger side, I would say between 18 and 25. But a few of the women that I highlight in the book were in their late 20s to early 30s. And Frances Cranmer was one of them. And she was, I think, had a wonderful sense of humor. She left a memoir behind where she talked about her time in Paris. And it's exactly what you say in that she really just from the outside, the exterior of the building, it is rather plain, rather boring. It is pretty nondescript even today. Except that the double doors have been painted kind of a lovely, almost a periwinkle color today. But there are no signage. And back then there wasn't any signage either from the extant photos that we've been able to see. But it really was once you turned the corner, walked through the doors that you were greeted by that beautiful interior courtyard and then the gardens beyond. It took up almost an entire width wise block between two streets. And then once you were inside, you were greeted by everything being really impeccably furnished and outfitted for these women so that they felt like it was this little cozy center of their worlds they talk about in newspaper articles and letters home, and of course also in these autobiographies about everything being so beautifully well done and very tasteful, all specifically so that these women would feel comfortable. You know, it's that true home away from home. And so even details like the brass samovar for a tea that stood in the corner, the linens in the red room, it was called red because of the red curtains and the red furnishings and the floor to ceiling bookshelves that they had in the library. The public spaces were really meant to be as warm and welcoming as possible. And that was not only for the women who were officially members of the club, but also for visitors. Because visitors, both men and women, could come to the American Girls Club and partake of tea every day. They can also have breakfast, lunch and dinner or any combination therein at the restaurant. So it was really meant to be basically a one stop shop. And some women did choose to spend as much of their time as possible at the club, do all of their dining, all of their socializing there and really could only leave and maybe walk a block or two to go to whatever art academy they were attending and then come right back home if they were living on site. So it really was this place that was seen as the perfect place for any woman to live if she was going to live in Paris. And that reputation really was maintained for the better part of over 20 years. So it really was quite impressive that it was so lauded during that period.
- [21:29]
B
Earlier in the book you quote some rather salacious late 19th century articles talking about basically the. The dangers of women going abroad to study. And they have sort of a misogyny cloaked in concern tone to them. But in this section, page 58, 59. You quote from a Town and country article that was published in 1909, and it's talking about the library at this property, and there's more than 600 books. And the article says it's a fine and comprehensive library with two valuable divisions devoted to French literature and art. There's a notable shift in the tone about why women are there and what they're there to do. And we see it in the women's letters as well, what they write home about their experience to their family. You quote women talking about being there and what it's like. As we go on, we get a sense of the food served there, the prices. You give us a menu from November 30, 1893. I think it's meant to be a Thanksgiving type meal because it has turkey and cranberry sauce. And just as an American, that's not jumping out to me as something you'd go to France to eat. But what does jump out about this is the prices and how carefully they subsidized the meals so that that idea of the starving artist was not going to be these women. Can you talk about the. The way they made it so affordable for people?
- [22:58]
C
Very much so, absolutely, yeah. Because, of course, at this period, I sort of alluded to it at the very beginning, but it was difficult for women to find what they was. They were considering safe places to stay that were affordable, because any place that was considered proper enough for a young woman to stay, especially if she was living on her own or unaccompanied by a male family member, for example, they were obviously going to be jacking up the prices. And this was also the same, by the way, with the art studios of the area. If they accepted women, they were often doing so at a rate that was double what the male art students would pay, because it was assumed that if women were going to make the effort and come all that way to Paris, then they should be serious about their potential art careers. And so they would then fork out the extra cash. So it was the same with. With money for the residencies, and it was also the same in many ways for food. And so to be able to have a healthful meal and to find it to be affordable at the same time was not always the easiest thing. And so that was one of the hopes with the club, was that it wasn't going to be a charity. They weren't giving these rooms out for free, but they were going to make sure to have it at the basement, you know, bargain basement levels. And that was something that was especially important to Elizabeth Mills Reid. And I mentioned that she continued to fund much of the club and even taking it through several renovations throughout its history to make sure that it was continuing to be as, as well maintained and as affordable as possible for the women who were coming there. The thing that I love most that she did is that every day at five o' clock they would offer afternoon tea. And this afternoon tea, like I mentioned, was open to everyone. You did not have to be a club member, nor did you even have to be a woman. If you wanted to stop by and spend an hour at the American Girls Club in Paris, you could do so regardless of your background. You could come and socialize and then take your cup of tea and then you could leave. And Elizabeth Mills Reid felt so strongly about that idea that for the entire history of the club's run and no one ever paid a single cent for tea, it was completely free every day. And I think that was quite important in being able to support, even in a small way, to know that you were able to have just that little bit of sustenance and socialization every day without costing a single cent. I think that's quite lovely.
- [25:32]
B
Chapter 8 is called Early Reviews and we learn a surprising Truth on page 73. The club almost failed in its early days. Can you tell us about what was going on there?
- [25:43]
C
I think a lot of it really comes down to administration. So at this era, you know, they're just trying to establish the fact of the club and get it up and running with by this time, both of its founders, Elizabeth Mills Reid and Helen Pert Newell, the minister's wife, had both left the country. So Helen Per Newell actually moved back to the US because her husband had died and she was ready to go back home to America. So she did that, I believe, in January of 1894. So only a few months into the club's run, the same thing went for Elizabeth Mills Reed. She actually left before the club fully opened in the fall of 1893, because her husband's ministership, the ambassadorship, had finalized. And so he was then up for the candidacy of Vice President. And so they moved back to the US also to work on his political campaign. So I think there was a little bit of growing pains as they were establishing this move to this larger property and with a number of on site employees and doing so without the Mills, the Reed Mills Reed and Helen Pert Newell around. So I think there were some growing periods for sure. Everybody had a few different ideas about how the Club should be run, what should be allowed. I think being able to handle the finances probably wasn't the easiest part thing at the very beginning. So in some ways I'm a little bit shocked and really happily surprised to know that it made it through that growing period and then continued to move on to become this more renowned and actually, believe it or not, a world renowned version of the club.
- [27:24]
B
The book is 21 chapters. We're only going to have time to dive into a few. And while we're here together, we want to make sure to highlight some of the women who, who lived there and did art. Chapter nine is called A Day in Anna Lester's Life. Can you take us into Anna Lester's story?
- [27:41]
C
Sure. Anna Lester was from Rome, Georgia and she was one of those older women who I mentioned. She had been a, a painter and she had drawn and became an art teacher for a long time working at a girls school as the art instructor and then at later point the leader of the art department. And she was one of these women who had a very well established and well respected career in the art world. She was single and she decided at one point that she was ready for a change and that she decided she didn't want to teach anymore. At that point she wanted to go back and learn herself. And so with her parents blessing, she moved to Paris. And it took her a little bit of time to kind of scout around what art school would work for her. But in some ways I think she was a really typical American woman coming over because she came from, I would say, an upper middle class family. She wasn't terribly wealthy by any means, but she did have some financial background to be able to make this big trek over to Europe happen. But it took her a while to find what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go. That was something that was very common among the women. Sometimes they would go and immediately knew what studio they wanted to join, what program they wanted to be a part of. But otherwise there was a lot of hopscotching between art studios, the ones that would allow women. And you would go and you would learn from one master for a few weeks and then you would swap to a different school on the other side of town. So Anna Lester did that. She also did the same thing when it came to her accommodations. She actually did not live at the American Girls Club. She was just a social tea taking member. But she had considered the club but unfortunately didn't find a room that was suitable that was available to her at the time. I think she wanted something a little bit nicer than what they currently had available. But what I think is great about her story is that she had letters that she left behind that are still in existence with her family today. Her, her nieces and, and I believe, grand nieces who are now part of that family. But she talks about what it's like to be an art student and what it's like to have to get up at six in the morning and leave her room before it was even bright outside so that you could go begin your drawing and painting courses at about 7 or 8am you would have just a brief break in the middle of the day for lunch, and then you would come back, continue your studies until 5 or 6 at night. If you were lucky, you could then go over for tea at the Girls Club. But many women would continue their work, sometimes in evening classes at another studio or even make up their own drawing and painting classes and workshops on site at the Girls Club. So there was this sense that the women especially who were part of the club were extraordinarily serious about their careers and their. Their hopes for becoming professional working artists. And that was really contrary to a lot of what you were reading at the time, especially in the American press, where all you were hearing about Paris was that it was either an extraordinarily dangerous place or that women in particular were just running rampant in this bohemian atmosphere. So it's really heartening, I think, to hear that so many of these women would write home letters and say, it's not like that at all. Basically saying, mom, dad, don't worry about me, it's not what you read. I've got a good handle on this. And we're really serious about getting to work. And so Anna Lester was a great example of that.
- [31:19]
B
Chapter 10 is called what Hopes and Fears and Triumphs and. And we meet Anna Lester, who's a working class background artist. And we also start learning about the salon system. You want people to know that there are actually several salons with varying levels of attention bestowed upon them and with varying requirements for entry. But when most artists mentioned vying for entry in the salon, they meant the official salon with a capital S. Can you tell us about Alice and can you tell us about the salon system? Yes.
- [31:57]
C
So Alice Rumpf, she was from Alabama, Birmingham, Alabama. And I really love her story because she's an example of a person from a working class family who did not have the means, even though she had a very strong desire to go to Paris and to study painting and drawing and also printmaking. She was an excellent printmaker, but she really didn't have the money to do so. But her father's company, this just shows you how popular the idea of going to study art in Paris was during this period. Her father's company, that had nothing to do with art, actually sponsored a scholarship. And she applied for the scholarship to go to Paris and she of course, course won. And so it funded three years of study in France. And so she was just beyond thrilled to go and ended up writing several columns for her hometown newspaper to talk about her experience while she was there. And she's the one who wrote the things about the. What hopes and fears and triumphs that you mentioned that the title of the chapter comes from, because she was speaking specifically of the Salon. And the Salon, as I mentioned, there were a few different ones. And by this point in history, the late 19th century, early 20th century, the main salon had actually split into two. So what this was, was it was the number one state sponsored art exhibition that was really the most important contemporary art show in history at this moment in time. So if you made it in, it was extremely rigorous. There was a jury that would then choose what works of art would be hung, would be extended, accepted, and where they would be placed in this art exhibition. It was really considered the big moment where you would have arrived. You would have been an artist whose work was judged to be good enough to be part of this biggest art exhibition. And therefore, you know, you have this bigger shot of becoming a really well respected artist. The idea was that if your art was seen at the Salon, you would then have this spiraling attention that would come after if you were seen at the Salon, people would want you to be the people to commission portraits from you. You would get other art exhibitions. Your work would then be purchased and bought by institutions, not only private collectors. So it was really seen as the big thing that you would do that would then make your mark. And Alice Rumpf, in her story, she writes and talks about the fact that it was the center of the year for art students in particular, because that was their number one goal, was that they would get to Paris, they would work incredibly hard, get the best training that they could possibly, possibly receive, and then if they were lucky, their work would then be succeed, would succeed and be accepted for the Salon. And Alice Rumpf was one of them. And that was really, I think, a big moment for her. And the big, biggest moment for any artist in Paris at this time was to be accepted by this artist committee.
- [35:01]
B
You take us into the experience of going there to see an art show at the salon. And it sounds, for an introvert like me, really stressful. There are huge crowds. You have a quote from artist Alice Morgan Wright writing a letter to her friend Edith. The place is perfectly huge and it is crowded. She'll have to go again to see this stuff. You talk about how in the 1880s, 6,743 works were accepted to be hung, that they were hung from floor to very high ceiling. And there was a expression called being skyed, which means that your art was put into the upper corners of the gallery. But you say that it was far preferable to a salon's rejection and that your mark, your work might be barely visible, but still, still you were in. So it sounds like there was a buffet of feelings you went through when you found out you were in, and then you went to go see your work displayed and you were trying to even get close enough to see it.
- [36:06]
C
Yes, absolutely. I think it was one of those things that obviously there was a hierarchy. They did consider the best works where they would be placed. It's called, and we actually use this term in museums still today, it's called being hung on the line. And so that's really the line of sight site where if you were looking straightforward, you would then see the work of art right in front of you. But, yes, the alternative was being skied, and that is not great. You obviously would hope, especially if your work was small or a very intimate piece, you would hope that it would not be skied so that people could actually enjoy it. But as you mentioned, just being able to say that you were included in the salon was a huge deal. And the fact that it was so lauded and so well received, it was basically, I think of it in some ways as being part of, you know, the Academy Awards or something, where people just flocked, not only people who were in the art world, but it was just the thing to do and the thing to see. All of Paris, and people from around the world would just come to these art exhibitions because it was considered, again, the biggest art exhibition in the world. I don't know if listeners are familiar much with any of the art fairs like Art Basel Miami or the Armory show in New York. People come in from all over the world today to see those shows. This was the late 19th and early 20th century equivalent to that. So, again, just being included, it's like saying, you know, it's just an honor to be nominated for an Academy Award. This was that equivalent in the art
- [37:41]
B
world you shared with listeners that she was writing home and she had a column at times that where they were publishing what she had to say. And she sent a letter to a friend in Birmingham who then shared it with the Birmingham News. And part of that letter is reproduced on page 94. And I love how it opens here. Rump is writing a letter home, and it opens, my dear friend, I am writing tonight to tell you that congratulations are in order to. For I am in the Salon, which is to say that the Society of French artists who exhibit annually in this big exhibition. She goes on and explains what the Salon is. Da, da, da. I won't read the whole thing, but I love how it opens. I am writing tonight to tell you that congratulations are in order. Often there's misconceptions about what women were like in this time period and how much they owned and named themselves. And this puts all that to rest. She tells you how you're going to respond to this honor. She goes into detail about what and where and how it is and what it means.
- [38:41]
C
So there's going to be no excuse
- [38:42]
B
for not congratulating her. I love how much she always.
- [38:45]
C
I did, too. I think that is incredibly delightful. And she was right. As I mentioned, this was not a small moment in any especially student artist life, let alone any established artists who are also vying for those same inclusions in the studio, excuse me, in the Salon. So I love that she says, you know what? I did it, and I'm excited and congratulate me. She deserved it.
- [39:09]
B
And I love that she explains how, you know, that got rid of all the excuses of, I didn't know what it meant. I didn't know what we were supposed to say. I have given you a recipe. You will follow it. Here is the deal.
- [39:19]
C
Exactly. And I think in some cases, it's really important that she did say exactly. Here's what the Salon is, here's what it means. But also, it's interesting to note that other women did not feel the need to have to lay all of that out, because by this point, especially, I would say by the turn of the century, by 1900, it, the salon itself was being covered in the American press just as much as it was in the French press. So even your everyday readers who would read, you know, McCall's or whatever their, you know, more general audience magazines were back then, they were reading articles and understanding that this was a really incredibly big deal deal. So there was no longer an excuse to be like, what? What's the Salon? Why is this a big deal? The American audience had learned by this point also that it was incredibly important. So. So I love that.
- [40:14]
B
Chapter 13 is called why Not Turn Our Art into Food? And we meet Florence Lundberg, and she has a very interesting idea. Can you take us into that? Yes.
- [40:23]
C
This is one of my favorite stories about the club. Florence Lundberg was from an upper middle class family in San Francisco, but her family was supportive in that they said, okay, you can go to Paris and you can study art for a couple of years, but that's all. That's all we're doing. We're not funding you any further from there. So, like a lot of women, she really was extraordinarily frugal in Paris, which was one of the reasons she chose to live at the club and stay there for the entirety of her time was that she was really looking to keep her money and her purse as long as possible. But after her two years were approaching, she really decided, you know what? I need one more year. So she was not able to convince her parents to give her more money. So she decided to take it upon herself to keep herself afloat as long as possible. And one day she was in one of her favorite cafes with her friends, and she said, you know what? This is one of our favorite places. We come here all the time. It was called Henriette's. And she said, this place is wonderful, but it's a little bland. I wonder if we could paint the walls and decorate it, and in exchange instead of asking for payment, we can come here and have food. So our payment is essentially getting to eat our meals here. And so the owners of Henriette's, the cafe, agreed. And so for the better part of a year, Florence Lundberg and her friend Alice Mumford came. And we don't know if it was every day, but I would have to assume it was. Had to be fairly frequently. But only in between their art studies, they came and created a mural on four sides of this tiny little dining room about a block away from the American Girls Club. And the specialty of the restaurant was fruit tarts. And so they took that English poem about the. The queen of Hearts who made some tarts on a summer day. They took that and they illustrated it across the entirety from almost the floor to the ceiling of this small club, excuse me, small restaurant. And the owners loved it so much, they actually kept the murals on the wall for the better part of 30 years. And it even was into the 1920s and 1930s that we know that the murals were still extant. But what I love about this is not only the Ingenuity of Florence Lundberg to say, you know what? I'm going to try my very best to fund myself by having all of my meals taken care of, care of for this additional year that I stay in Paris. But they were also showing the ways that they were part and very integral of this especially expatriate American community of this section of France that was in some ways they called it, you know, almost like a little American colony because there were so many American students, especially American girls living nearby. And it was literally these women making their mark on this place that was incredibly important to them. And I think that's a really beautiful story.
- [43:17]
B
And listeners can dig more into this in chapter 11, an exhibition of Their Own where we learn about the formation of the American Women's Art association and how that was an important course correction to the previous American Art association there. We're starting to run short on time and I want to make sure that we dig into chapter 14 where we meet Ms. Warick. She comes onto our scene in October of 1899. She's had a horrible 13 day sea crossing in September. There was heavy fog, large swells, near misses with two other ships. There had been a small onboard fire. She had severe seasickness and had to be in her cabin for most of it. And she arrives, she's a sculptor, she wants to study that further. She has experienced racism her whole life and she's going to experience it here as well. And she has an amazing opportunity to meet Rodin. Can you talk about her dreams?
- [44:17]
C
Yes. She was an incredibly gifted sculptor. As you mentioned, she was from a Philadelphia family, an African American middle class Philadelphia family who was really well respected. But she was the baby of the family and after her father died she really felt like she was responsible for taking care of her mother. So she was actually loathe to go to Paris and and continue studying art. But she had several really well respected and respecting of her art instructors who said, you know what, you've really got something special. I think you should go to Paris. So she did so. And unfortunately I'll leave to the readers to read a little bit more of her experience at the American Girls Club. But hers I think is sort of a counter narrative to most of what I read about the club, which was that it was an incredibly warm and welcoming place. And I think the caveat here is that it was probably incredibly warm and welcoming as long as you were a white woman from the U.S. at this point, which meat of a Warwick was not. So she did not have the best experience. But I think she didn't let it hold her back is what I'm trying to say. She really took, again, just like many of the women who were part of the club, she took her art career and art studies extremely seriously. And she was able to make connections through a couple of friends with the great sculptor Auguste Rodin. And she went to him specifically to ask for mentorship, and at a point when he was not accepting students. But then she showed him an example of her work and he said, you have something special. And he used a phrase that was something like, you, my lady, are a born sculptor. You have a gift. And so he said, okay, I won't teach you, I won't be your, your art instructor, but I will mentor you on a personal basis. And so they continued this relationship. He was able to support her and recommend doing certain things like having art exhibitions at some of the contemporary art galleries in Paris. So much so that by the time that her three year or two year residency in Paris was finishing up, she had become this renowned name in Paris and people were riding back home to the US in newspapers and letters and saying, you know what? This is the woman to watch. Her sculpture is incredible. And she became known as the delicate sculptor of horrors because she was this wonderful, very prim, very quiet, introverted woman, but whose work was really kind of dark. And she really favored gruesome stories in very dramatic, dark works. And so I think people really liked that contrast. Her work is really amazing.
- [46:56]
B
The book has a prologue and epilogue, 21 chapters. And when we get to page 231, we have a section called Afterlives where we revisit a number of the women and we find out about what happened with their career and their lives after they left their time in Paris. We're starting to get very close to the end of our time together. And I wanted to make time to talk to you about why fostering the arts matters. It's something that you care about deeply. And that comes through in this example of the book of how some women philanthropists came together to make sure that fostering women's art would matter. In the time that we're taping, we're seeing reduction of funding for the arts. What would you like to say about why art matters?
- [47:36]
C
I think art is really what separates us from so many, I mean, all the other animals almost in the world. You know, it's part of our humanity. The ability to create, to do something, to celebrate its beauty, is part of our core understanding of what it means to be human. To be creative. And I think that the arts are just important as the sciences, as engineering, as math, to creating a well rounded person, which then leads us into a well rounded society. Art, I think, also helps us to be empathetic. It causes us to be able to think in a different way and analyze the world around us in a different way. So I believe it's fully necessary and I hope that we get to a point where it is considered a more integral part of our current society.
- [48:22]
B
Thank you so much for being with us today. Jennifer Dassel, and taking us inside the club where American women artists found refuge in Belle Apoque, Paris. I'm Christina Gessler. You're listening to the Academic Life. Please join us again. Quick interruption worth hearing. If you love sports, TikTok is for you. Game highlights, expert breakdowns and fan reactions. Just the moments that matter. Download TikTok now.