Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Final Word

"The Blue Gown" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Sadie and Frederick Carl Frieseke purchased tickets for a visit to the United States to see Frances, Kenton, and Hugh, their new baby. But it was not to be. On the afternoon of August 24, 1939, shortly after the German invasion of Poland, when it was clear to the world that the awful die was cast, Frederick Frieseke died suddenly at his home in Normandy. The cause was an aneurysm. 

Sadie cabled Frances, 'Darling, our Papa could not stand the overpowering emotions of the last few days - with no suffering he left us last night... be brave and help me to bear my sorrow, love.'

The last paintings from Frieseke's hand are vivid small landscapes done in the spring of 1939, when the orchards were all in flower. In the early summer, two months before Frieseke's death, Macbeth had organized a large retrospective exhibition of Frieseke's work for the New York's Grand Central Art Galleries. Frederick's old friend Karl Anderson wrote to him on July 30, 1939, concerning both the exhibition and the times:

'I want to set you straight on the exhibition at the Grand Central. My own impression and, better, the comment of many artists, to me, was fulsome praise if ever I heard it. I assure you it was a premier show of the year, at least for the painters. It means something, but not much at this time, that you did not sell. Show after show came and went, this year, and no sales were made. 

We can explain this only in this way: that the fear of war and the distressing economic state in this country has so distressed people that they have lost all interest in things of the spirit or of any of the forms of beauty. It occurs to me that this might explain the tolerance of sensitive humans to dull ugliness in line and color. It has been easier to accept the propaganda which fostered it than to think much about it. 

My impression was that your exhibition awakened many to the forgotten promise that has been broken. For a short time many had regret that the art you gave was not now in the mode of the misled amateur. More than one artist told me of their faith that your talent was not in eclipse, but that the thought of it was but out of people's mind, for a short time. You are then in the enviable class of the unappreciated and misunderstood, and you should be very happy about that.'

We still have the paintings, which are alive and continue to offer an invitation to the viewer to enter into conversation with them. But let the last words be those of the painter himself, a simple statement, stubborn and hopeful, the last one we have from him to Macbeth, written in September 1937, after Frances had moved away. If anything he ever wrote explains him, these words do. 'We have decided to stick on here for the present. Am working again.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Question of Place

"Memories" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Frances Frieseke, Frederick and Sadie Frieseke's daughter, and Kenton were married in Le Mesnil sur Blangy on June 2, 1937. As was the custom, the whole village joined in the festivities. Afterward the couple went to the United States to live. With the announcement of Frances' pregnancy at the end of the year, the issue of the Friesekes' possible return took on additional impetus. But should they move Frieseke's career must also change its orientation, since painting is a response to both place and time. 

A letter from Sadie to Kenton and Frances gives some idea of the continuing discussion and of its context:

 'Saint Gaudens [Homer Saint-Gaudens], his wife, and Lerolle came to lunch on Wednesday. Papa was a perfect host and the déjeuner went off beautifully... They were all unanimous in telling him to stay where he is. Saint Gaudens says that unless he lives in New York he might as well be here & that even when the American artists have a good year they are worried to death as to where the next year's rent is coming from. You can see how impossible it would be for Papa to live in such an atmosphere... 

They think Papa's later pictures the finest he has done & Saint Gaudens said - what you want to do is stop worrying about where to go & just keep on painting. Erwin Barrie, director of the Grand Central Art Galleries & Macbeth wish to have a retrospective exhibition of Papa's pictures at the New York Grand Central Art Galleries, sometime in the fall - with some of his later things. Barrie has sent five of Papa's pictures to the Venice exhibition & the Italian gallery has given him an entire wall, so Papa seems encouraged by the reborn interest in his work.

As Papa says, if he could he would burn at least 3/5 of the pictures he has painted & it may be the very ones he would burn that they will choose. If I could only persuade Papa to go over himself to hang the show [Sadie was ill at this time] - but of course he won't hear of such a thing.'

The Friesekes purchased tickets for a visit to the United States to see Frances, Kenton, and Hugh, their new baby. But it was not to be." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: For the Love of Art

"Blue Girl Reading" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Concerning the Macbeth exhibition of Frieseke's winter subjects, Robert Macbeth wrote with brutal brevity, 'We liked them and the public didn't.' Frederick Carl Frieseke returned to exhibiting at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1932, but from then on, working chiefly for himself - and an audience that was not likely to include purchasers - he concentrated almost exclusively on the portrait.

The drastic reduction in the family's finances led them to give up the Paris apartment and to settle down in Normandy. In 1934 Fred reached the age of sixty and was experiencing periods of depression and physical disability, such as neuritis in the shoulders, which made painting difficult.

Nevertheless, the years 1934 to 1935 saw the last great flowering of the painter's energy in a series of portraits including 'The Library,' and culminating in his late masterpiece, 'Blue Girl Reading,' both portraits of Frances. His last extensive show of recent work in October 1935, included some sixteen paintings spanning the period from 1932 onward. That his work continued to be well received, in critical terms, is amply demonstrated by the award of the Corcoran's second William Clark Prize and a silver medal for the 1934 portrait "At the Piano.'

In 1935 it was becoming increasingly evident to all who took note of the political winds in Europe that another major war was inevitable. The effects of the Depression were still a factor also. At the same time, Frances had become engaged to Kenton Kilmer, a young American poet and editor with whom she had begun a correspondence in the winter of 1933-34. Considering their daughter's impending marriage and other factors, the Friesekes contemplated the possibility of moving to the United States. Frieseke wrote Macbeth:  

'I have not been painting for some time. I promise the impetus will come again some day, when I can convince myself that it is worthwhile from some point of view. I have a very few canvases, but it really doesn't seem worthwhile adding to your encumberment. At times we consider returning to America to live but it seems a bit venturesome after all these years, especially as we can live here perfectly comfortably on our greatly reduced income. I must confess, however, that I am getting dissatisfied at not working.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Ill Health

"White Lilies" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The Frieseke family returned to the United States during the final weeks of 1928. It had been eighteen years since they had last seen New York. They were shocked and overwhelmed by the rush and vulgarity, and by the hypocrisy manifested in urban America under Prohibition. They also stopped in Pittsburgh and then visited the Karl Andersons in Connecticut. Anderson had been storing old paintings of Frieseke's that Macbeth had no present use for, and Fred took the opportunity to destroy a great many of them, which he felt to be 'no longer a credit to his reputation.'

On their return to France, their daughter, Frances, whose health had never been robust, was diagnosed as having a 'pretubercular' condition. It was decided that she must be exposed to a regimen, which included better air, in Switzerland. This downturn in her health recalled the recent death of her friend Elsbeth, who was Richard Miller's daughter. That had hit the Friesekes very hard. Sadie reminded Frances:

 'You know I was with Elsbeth's mama when Elsbeth was born and I always felt that if anything happened to her parents that she would of course live with us. She seemed so much a part of our family... I think of that other poor mother and father who haven't any little girl any more and I just feel as though I couldn't bear it. I wrote to Aunt Billee & Uncle Richard & I wish you to do also - just the kind of letter you would like Elsbeth to have written to me, if God had taken you away from us... You will all understand how such a terrible tragedy makes my heart stand still. Poor Papa is a wreck & and of one thing you can be sure. There will be no boarding school away off among strangers for you...'

So Sadie accompanied Frances to Switzerland, where they spent the next two years while she followed her cure prescribed by a sanatorium. Fred joined them within four months. Within the next few years Frances improved enough that the family returned to Normandy."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Salon des Tuileries

"Child at the Piano" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"In 1923 Frederick Carl Frieseke broke from the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and joined with others in establishing the Salon des Tuileries, showing two nudes, a portrait of the dancer Jane Belo, and an image of his daughter Frances at the piano. In keeping with the sentiments of the renegades, the group's introductory manifesto proclaimed:

'The most gifted of the artists of the Salon d'Automne and the Independent were invited to show next to Friesz, Guérin, Flandrin, on the line at the Salon de Tuileries, even the isolated who, on account of their hatred of the promiscuity of the salons and their mercantilism in the race after medals [had rejected the other salons as unworthy venues for true artists].' 

 In its first year the Tuileries attracted others among the Europeans who were associated with the more modern movements. Matisse would join the following year, as would Marc Chagall and Paul Sérusier. It is in this company, perhaps, as well as in that of such Americans as Bellows and Glackens, that Frieseke's work of the last two decades is best understood. Never discordant, shocking, or purposely worrying, Frieseke's later works nonetheless contain a new sense of realism that more and more eschews style or an audience's expectation. They rely more on the accidents of everyday life, which when they are viewed with the painter's care, take on a poignant gravity.

The October 1924 shipment to Macbeth - twenty-two canvases ('the pick of my things, past and present') - shows the artist's preferred direction. Seven of the clothed figures are portraits of Frieseke's wife or daughter in which the artist, relishing the range of color to be discovered in the skin in shadow made no effort to address a public taste for what might be dismissed as merely pretty. There was a growing disparity between what collectors looked for and what Frieseke's development led him to produce. One critic observed of one work:

'The figure belongs to the highest reach of Frieseke's talent, finely observed, beautifully and tenderly painted with the quiet, almost solemn, grasp that for a time was almost driven out of flesh-painting by the attempted radiance of impressionism.'

Frieseke took what comfort he could. 'I cannot help feeling from what I have heard from others, that it was a success from points of view other than financial.' But Frieseke pressed on, continuing to exhibit regularly in the Salons and joining with his colleagues in group exhibitions in Paris and the United States."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Outside Interests

"Frances" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"In Paris the Friesekes kept up their social schedule. Fred painted in the morning, played billiards in the afternoon. They had luncheon, tea, or dinner with friends, and attended musical and theatrical offerings. Sadie, being far more gregarious than Fred, was more likely to take part in the salons at Gertrude Stein's than he. He preferred to lunch quietly with his good friend the Irish painter Roderic O'Conor, a neighbor on the rue du Cherche Midi and once Gauguin's painting companion, or he might play billiards with the painter Charles Thorndike, visit exhibitions, or browse the book stalls.

In Normandy Fred painted or fished. If the caged bird - for him the symbol of contented domesticity - had a natural rival it was the wild trout of the Touques or the Risele. Sadie became an active participant in the life of the town where their farm was situated. At the Normandy house, called La Beauvairie, and commemorated in the artist's 'My Home in Normandy.'

There had never been a time when Frieseke did not turn serious attention to landscape. His protracted study of the Luxembourg Gardens in the spring of 1901 had led directly to the Brittany landscapes of that summer. In Giverny he had done 'pure' landscapes without figure) representing that specific countryside, but Macbeth could do nothing with them and tended not to show them.  

Whether outdoors or in his studio the painter was entranced by the change of light and atmosphere in Normandy. Unlike the sunny, dry Giverny climate that reveals brilliant and distinct colors, the Normandy microclimate is moist, unpredictable, and frequently wild, with brilliant sun often eclipsed by wind and rain. The fertile landscape presents a bewildering range of absorbent greens, with only the most subtle color shifts. This landscape fascinated Frieseke. He was also intrigued, no doubt, by his new position as proprietor of a working farm. During the 1920s he returned to it frequently, working either in the orchards and pastures below his home or in the extensive gardens Sadie designed and supervised above it."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Normandy and Frances

"The Artist's Daughter" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"As his career progressed Frederick Carl Frieseke did not hesitate to follow his innate sense of how his craft must develop. His manner and approach would become progressively more meditative and deliberate, his production less. He wrote Macbeth:

'My present method of painting allows me to produce very few pictures as compared with that I turned out previously. You will have to explain to your customers that these pictures take five to six times as long to paint as previous ones, and I consider them far more complete as works of art.'

There were other changes at work as well. In 1919 the Friesekes decided to shift their summer quarters. They had become friendly with the Philadelphian George Biddle, who had painted with Fred in Giverny during the summers of 1915 and 1916. In September 1919 Fred wrote to George, 

'We have been trying to find a place in Normandy to buy. Hard to  find what we want and the troubled times here make us doubtful if it's wise to buy at all... Giverny has been quite gay this summer. Louis [Ritman] is installed in Miss Wheeler's house with his model [Gaby]. Waldo Pierce, with Jeanne Savoy, is living in the little house next to the farm...'

Though the Friesekes often said that their reason for taking a place in Normandy was the fishing, undoubtedly they had also concluded that Giverny was no place to bring up a little girl. Once they had purchased the Normandy property in 1919, Frieseke began the series of landscapes and the clothed figures - many of them portraits - that would occupy him for the remainder of his life. As Frances grew older, she became more and more his preferred subject.

From the very beginning the Friesekes had never been at ease about their daughter's health. Her birth followed a difficult pregnancy, and her infancy was threatened from the outset by her parents' unwitting use of a criminally adulterated baby formula to which formaldehyde had been added as a preservative. For much of her youth, and until her marriage in 1937, Frances was considered to be either an invalid or at grave risk. Though she occasionally attended schools for brief periods, as the Friesekes moved back and forth from Paris to Normandy, for the most part her education relied on tutors and governesses."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: "Peace"

"Peace" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The war progressed, and Fred and Sadie Frieseke continued the routines of life and work in Paris and Giverny, wintering in the south of France between October 1917 and the spring of 1918. Among the paintings sent to Macbeth in the fall of 1917 was one whose title, 'Peace,' given the context of the World War during which it was composed, suggests more than a passing consideration for the metaphorical significance of its subject. It represents what we read as a mother seated in the nursery, sewing, next to her child's cradle. It is as domestic a subject as may be imagined. The model is Louise, a native of Giverny who posed frequently for Frieseke at this time, and the cradle was that of Frieseke's daughter, who had long outgrown it. The message of the painting's title was not lost on its American audience when it was shown in 1918. One reporter observed:

 'Woman as the hope and consolation of the race is the basic thought of Frieseke's 'Peace'... Altogether, the picture is full of hope for a new generation that shall not be obsessed by frightfulness... Frieseke's picture evokes a vision of the time forecast in the words of the prophet Micah, 'And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift a sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.'

Very likely the painting's title was Sadie's contribution since she assisted when a shipment of paintings must be given titles. An earlier or preparatory version of the subject was called simply 'In the Nursery.' Whatever the painter's intention, and however the title came about, we can only applaud the happy coincidence of the painter's craft and the journalist's reading." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: The War

"The Parrots" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Of the American painters in France, most had already returned home once war appeared inevitable, and others followed suit when war broke out. The Friesekes, however, hunkered down. As Frieseke wrote Macbeth: 'You see we are still staying by the flag. Things were sufficiently exciting with aeroplanes dropping bombs. We are provisioned for a six months' siege. I couldn't stand leaving Paris after the years I've lived here. Seemed like running away.'

Far from running away, he volunteered to serve with the American Red Cross ambulance service at Neuilly, outside Paris, an activity that lasted five months. He was no longer working in the hospital, he told Macbeth in a letter of February 1, 1915, because there were fewer wounded being sent to Paris. 'Am working hard in spite of the war - in fact find work the only relief from the sadness of it all.'

The painting continued in Paris and, with good weather, in Giverny also. The Paris Salons had been closed down on account of the war. It was next to impossible to ship work, and Frieseke had sent much of his stock to England for safekeeping. However, he was able to put together a striking representation for the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, which opened in June 1915. Here Frieseke was awarded the grand prize and gold medal for his entries, notable among them the nude 'Summer,' painted in 1914, an especially fruitful year for him. That season he produced a series of large, successful figure pieces, nude and clothed, single and in groups, that suggest singular energy, sufficient finances for material and frames, and plenty of working space. His 1915 presentation in San Francisco won him critical acclaim. His success was accompanied by sales sufficient to lead him into an unusual arrogance in defense of one of his preferred subjects. In a letter of late October 1915, he wrote Macbeth: 'You may find too many nudes among my last shipment. But one cannot paint for the public entirely and as over here my reputation is chiefly with my nudes I see no reason why the American public should not recognize it.'

However, his primary concern was not with subject matter as he wrote: 'I should have explained before what I am aiming at in my work, which has [for] a number of years been constant - experimenting to attain the priority of color and truth of light effect.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)  

Frederick Carl Frieseke: France and Corsica

"Before Her Appearance (La Toilette)"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Frederick and Sadie Freieseke returned to France in February. Aside from a very brief visit to New York and Pittsburgh at the end of 1928, this would be the last Frieseke was to see of his native country. The couple spent a particularly rainy summer in Giverny, but as Frieseke wrote to a friend: 'I managed to do a good season's work in spite of it and think I can put up a better show than last year.' Having created his summer's work (he complained it took two days to think of titles) and sent it to New York, Fred packed himself and Sadie off to Corsica for the winter months. 

Here, once they had found a house and garden to their liking, they set up shop and Frieseke sent for his model, Marcelle. She would figure in the six large canvases to be exhibited in the 1913 Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. After the miserable Giverny summer, the Corsican weather was an improvement. Even in February, Marcelle was able to pose naked on the beach, while Fred painted 'On the Dunes,' and Sadie watched from the distance to warn them of approaching tourists.

By the end of 1913 the Friesekes felt sufficiently stable economically to purchase the apartment on the rue du Cherche Midi. There had been sales in the United States. The arrangement with Wanamaker whereby he purchased a regular number of pictures annually was still in force, and Mrs. H.P. Whitney purchased the largest of Frieseke's Salon pictures, 'Before Her Appearance (La Toilette)' for $2500. Thus the Friesekes could afford to think of expanding into real estate. 

Besides, at the end of 1913, Sadie was pregnant. There had been other pregnancies that ended in disappointment, but this one was successful. In a world that was preoccupied by the parade of implacable forces whose posturing and ultimatums would lead to war, Sadie and Fred nursed a more loving hope. Frances, their only child, was born in Paris on August 2, 1914, as France mobilized for war against Germany. Fred had been in Giverny, but he managed to get the last civilian train to Paris."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Macbeths

"On the Balcony" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Frederick Carl Frieseke could not have found better friends in America than William and Robert Macbeth, the most successful and influential of the New York art dealers. The Macbeths carried an impressive array of talent, groomed their artists assiduously, and talked turkey. They could also sell pictures. Working with Macbeth, Frieseke prepared a one-artist exhibition that opened on January 17, 1912. Fred and Sadie were on hand for the opening. Though normally reticent, impatient, and not forthcoming when it came to talking about his work Frieseke gave an interview, to an as-yet-unidentified reporter in New York, which seems to represent a fair sense of the way he thought about his painting:

'He considers his problem at present to be 'light and color and sunshine.' All the paintings in the exhibition displayed the main tenets of his art principles, namely 'that painting is not theoretical, but a matter of enthusiasm.' He makes no previous sketches for his work, but takes the inspiration for his work straight to his canvas, and apprehending nature as a system of green and blue, not of brown, he demonstrates a fearless use of colors, fresh and pure, and avoids mixing white in anything. 'Most artists,' he says, 'are afraid of green,' and to prove his emancipation he uses all colors with utter fearlessness and boldness, and by this madness has won his way to eminence. Drawing he considers the A B C of painting. His detail is sufficient and comprehensive, but it does not take his first attention, for, 'if you have a human being on your canvas,' he says, 'your interest is there, and not on a dish or a material.' And for his future, his belief that it is impossible for an artist to be satisfied with his work unless he is by nature self-complacent, and that he must go on experimenting, in fact must be dissatisfied in order that he may approach his goal, will doubtless lead him to greater things than he has even yet accomplished. 'No artist,' he says, 'should be bound to one style,' so just what his development will be it is almost impossible to tell.'" 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Associations

"The Garden Parasol" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The Friesekes and the Richard Miller and his wife were fast friends. Miller, who had arrived in Paris shortly after Fred, was well connected in America, achieved European success quite early, and showed generous admiration for Fred's work. Invited to fill a room at the Venice Biennial in 1909 with his own paintings, he offered to share the space with Fred.

It is at the Eighth International Exhibition in Venice in April-May 1909 that we find the first important offering of outdoor subjects by Frieseke. Here were some of the major plein air themes that would come to be associated with his summer work during the next decade: the woman in the garden, the nude sunbather, and the woman in a boat in shadowy water. 

As he turned his attention to the out of doors and thus subjected himself to a far-from-controlled environment, Frieseke remained the methodical and meticulous painter who had trained under Whistler. The 1910 portrait by Karl Anderson shows Frieseke in bow tie, smock, and Panama hat, painting a nude outdoors. He holds the same array of brushes as he might have in the academy, one brush set aside for each of the colors that had been mixed beforehand.

Frieseke had known Karl Anderson when both were students at the Art Institute of Chicago, and both had traveled in Holland in the summer of 1898. They renewed their friendship, traveling together with Richard Miller in Venice and Florence in 1909. Anderson spent time in Giverny in both 1909 and 1910. He became one of the so-called Giverny luminists who exhibited together at Henry Fitch Taylor's Madison Art Gallery in December 1910. 

For Frieseke's career, this first venture into the commercial world of New York was of crucial importance, and as a result he came to the notice of William and Robert Macbeth, the most successful and influential of the New York dealers."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Giverny Aesthetic

"Rest (Femme au Sofa)" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Beginning in 1906 Fred and Sadie Frieseke began to spend the warmer months in Giverny, a comfortably bucolic village within easy reach of Paris. Giverny also enjoyed all the urban advantages of a well-established art colony, one that had been especially favored by Americans. During the months from April through October the surroundings were a movable feast attended by regulars such as Ernest and Mary Blumenschein, the Karl Buehrs, Theodore Butler, the A. B. Frost family, Lawton Parker, and Guy and Ethel Rose. The men fished together. There were countless musical evenings, tennis matches at the courts of the Hotel Baudy, and afternoon teas. The Friesekes took tea with the Monets. Monet and Sadie, herself an ambitious gardener, eagerly discussed the expansion of Monet's garden, and the new bridge from which his water lily garden could be enjoyed.

Alieen O'Bryan, Sadie's niece, spent the summer of 1910 in Giverny with the Friesekes and left a memoir that preserves some of her impressions from that time. 'It was not alone the desire to paint gardens that brought this group together,' she wrote. 'They wished to be rid of business and political ties, rid of petty vanities and avarice, rid of fashions and affiliations.' As a cultural model for the group and its aesthetic she suggested the works of Horace, in which were to be found 'a kind of breviary of good taste, of poetry, or practical and worldly wisdom.' 

'It was our custom to spend a great deal of the time in the garden. Sadie would usually read aloud while Fred painted. Occasionally I would get out my water colours; but more often I would pose for Fred and listen to whatever my aunt had chosen from their well-filled bookshelves. As I look back, life was very pleasant, and much of the pleasure lay in the fine aestheticism.'

An state observer, Aileen O'Bryan was surely correct in her suggestion that idealism was a significant factor in bringing and holding the group together. Appropriately, the nude figure outdoors, the symbol of this urbane community, is an Arcadian motif claiming a civilized innocence."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Professional Success

"Afternoon Tea on the Terrace" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"On his return to Paris at the end of May 1904, Frederick Carl Frieseke learned that the director of the Luxembourg Museum had selected one of his Salon nudes for purchase by the French government. The triumph must be celebrated with a dinner at Lavenue, a cafe-restaurant in a first-class hotel near the Montparnasse railroad station. Fred invited a party that included the Clarks and William Merritt Chase, who was in town.

Frieseke, who had begun to work in larger scale, exhibited three sizable canvases at the spring Salon. Fortunately, he now had enough money to devote his studio space exclusively to painting, because he had to plan and execute an even larger-scale composition - the mural project for the Hotel Shelburne in Atlantic City. The mural, designed as a single composition, but completed in seven segments, depicts a beach scene with figures, principally elegant young ladies, although a few children, an occasional male, and even a donkey also appear. Sadie was the model for many of the figures. The mural was installed under his supervision in February 1906. 

Frieseke's professional life was booming. His entries to the Saint Louis World's Fair of 1904 had earned him a silver medal. A large nude submitted to the ninth Internationalen Kunstausstellung in Munich in 1905 was awarded the gold medal. That same summer he made what may have been his first visit to Giverny. 'I am leaving in a few days with Young,' he wrote Sadie. She had gone back to Pennsylvania to help her sister Kitty with a new child. 'Giverny is where Monet paints, and MacMonnies lives. You'll like the Youngs.' Frieseke was at least a month in Giverny during the summer of 1905, but what or how he painted there is not recorded."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: All for Sadie

"Through the Vines"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The O'Bryans had returned to Paris in October 1903. They took an apartment in a rather opulent new building just by the boulevard du Montparnasse. Frederick Carl Frieseke lived a mere ten-minute walk away. Sadly, Judge O'Bryan died rather suddenly on March 1, 1904, following an operation for appendicitis. The family was obliged to pack, parcel their belongings out among friends for safekeeping, vacate the apartment, and accompany O'Bryan's body on its return to the United States for burial. Fred had spent the hours of watching with the family, and he accompanied them on their voyage.

He had other business in America - business that may have had as its motive the desire to qualify as a husband for Sadie O'Bryan. The previous year he had begun to provide illustrations and marginal decorations for the 'North American,' a Philadelphia newspaper owned and managed by the Wanamakers' eldest son. He pressed Frieseke to come to Philadelphia as an advisor to the art department and to provide more drawings for both the paper and the Wanamaker stores. Though Frieseke was provided with ample studio space, it amounted to an office job, and it did not agree with him. 

By Spring Frieseke was decidedly out of sorts. He complained to Sadie:

'I want to paint and, honey, the longer I stay the harder it will be for them to get on without me. Oh, dear, if only I were not ambitious... As a great compliment and favor they are going to give me a full-page ad, 'The American Girl by Frieseke.' Well, I hadn't the heart to refuse. They meant it so kindly. But to think I'd ever do such a thing! I've drawn the girl, though, and they are pleased to death with her. And this is fame, dearie. I'm an ungrateful little slob.' 

True, Fred and Sadie were of the same national origin, but after that there were significant differences. Sadie was elegant and tall, almost six feet; Fred was short and dumpy, a condition he could alleviate only by good humor. He concluded one letter with 'I send you all the love that's possible from a person of my size.' Sadie's family was militantly Catholic, while his approach to religion was tangential. Sadie's family enjoyed an ostentatious display of wealth, while Fred was poor and of a family whose economic status could be described as 'comfortable' at best. Fred was modest, determined and introverted. Sadie was dramatic, gregarious - and probably even more determined. As it worked out in due course, they were married in Paris on October 31, 1905. It proved to be an excellent match." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: John Wanamaker's Patronage

"The Birdcage" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"At the end of May 1903 Frederick Carl Frieseke wrote:

'I had a call one day from John Lavery, Joseph Pennell and two other members of the International Society in London. They wanted me to send three of my Salon pictures over there to their exhibition in June - but they are all invited to America so I don't know what to do.'

The honor, which Frieseke was able to accept with a suitable submission, came before the artist had reached his thirtieth birthday and established his rise to the height of recognition among his peers. Founded in 1899 the exclusive International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London had Whistler as its president. Its membership included John White Alexander, Albert Besnard, Gustav Klimt, Frederick MacMonnies, James Jebusa Shannon, Fritz Thaulow, Henri Fantin-Latour, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet,  Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Félix Vallotton, and Edouard Vuillard.

To this success was added a stroke of economic good fortune. John Wanamaker guaranteed to purchase every year a certain number of Frieseke's paintings for the fixed amount of $2,500 - then a princely sum. Wanamaker had started buying from the Salons during his frequent trips to Paris in the 1880s. He was hard-nosed, civic-minded, opinionated, and successful. And he knew what he liked. 

'He was attracted to canvases where the landscapes were gay. He wanted his skies bright, his trees honestly green, and the girl standing in the field beside the river not too drably dressed. He expected a picture to tell a story... He did not like nudes. His women had to be clothed. and he was emphatic is his belief that disgusting realism had no place in art or literature.' 

As he commenced collecting, he took back with him across the ocean works that embodied his aesthetic principles; that art in its highest sense is the expression of ideal beauty, and that it should depict the beautiful or teach a lesson. So he amassed works by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Rose Bonheur, William Bouguereau, Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet, and many more.. He purchased 250 paintings from the 1903 Salons alone.

There is no indication that Wanamaker's tastes had a direct effect on Frieseke's production, short of encouraging him. But his patronage cannot have failed to make itself felt. For one thing it gave the young man hope that he could demonstrate himself to be a good financial risk."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Jeanne Blazy

Detail from "Jeanne" by Alfred Maurer

"In Paris again at the end of November, Frederick Carl Frieseke settled into a new living and working space at 6, rue Victor Considerant. His rooms were above the apartment of Alson and Medora Clark, who for the next few years would provide familial stability and comradeship. The three shared meals and evenings of Parcheesi or bezique. Medora sewed his buttons on and frequently posed for the two men; she is the model for Frieseke's 'The Green Sash.' Also and Fred spent much time together, whether playing billiards, visiting exhibitions, or buying new top hats in time for the opening of the Internationale exhibition.

Once settled in, Frieseke engaged the services of a model from heaven, Jeanne Blazy.

'I've had a nice model. She's as useful as anything in other things besides posing. Brings my things for luncheon and cooks them before she leaves, hunts up anything I wish and is always cheerful. Always late but works on as long as I wish. She has posed for Whistler and lots of the big men. Posed for MacMonnies' statue in the Luxembourg.'

Given her essential contribution to the work of many artists, Jeanne Blazy might qualify for her own exhibition. In addition to the talents Frieseke discovered, Jeanne, it seems, could also stand on one foot for a long time while balancing an infant on her arm, as she apparently did for MacMonnies' 'Bacchante with Infant Faun.' Alfred Maurer's 'Jeanne,.' painted around 1904, presents a very different image of the same woman who appears in Frieseke's 'Sleep,' shown at the Salon in 1904. Maurer's interpretation won a gold medal at the 1905 Internationalen Kunstausstellung in Berlin."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Business Back at Home

"The Gold Locket" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"In the late spring of 1902 Frederick Carl Frieseke returned to the United States. He had been away five years. He had family matters to keep up with and it was also time for him to tend to the American side of his career. It had become the practice in some parts of the American art establishment to defer to the jury systems of the Paris Salons. An American artist who had been accepted by the Société des Artistes Français or the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts was more than likely to be invited to the annual exhibition of the Art Institute of Chicago the following October, and thence to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It was prudent for the young artist to build upon his European success. If he was to make a living at this business, his paintings must be not only seen but also sold.

 'I'm going to bring all my pictures home,' Frieseke wrote, 'and with the stuff I shall paint there during the summer, try to arrange for some exhibitions in different cities... I"ll stay in America until next fall in time for the Internationale show here.' So, leaving his four submissions hanging at the Salon, he sailed for home. During the next seven months he managed to spend time in Owosso, transact business in New York and Chicago, continue the regular supply of drawings for Wanamaker, and see Sadie in New York. A series of meeting with William R. French [sculptor Daniel Chester French's brother], director of the Art Institute of Chicago resulted in a special exhibition of eight of his paintings, which were hung together in Chicago's annual exhibition.

Only occasionally during his career is there any sign that Frieseke thought seriously of living and working in the United States. Nevertheless, he was encouraged by his reception in Chicago.

'The painters here all seem to like my things. I have been awfully well treated by them here and several have asked me to locate here, but I wouldn't live here for the world as - to show the art interest of the town - I may say that only two of the morning papers had any mention of the exhibition. I was well treated in both, but it makes one tired to see so little interest displayed. I but I am wild to get back to work.'"

So back to Paris he went! 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.) 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Inner Thoughts of an Artist

"Woman Before a Mirror"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The O'Bryans had gone back to the United States in February of 1901 and would not return to Paris until October 1903 - to Fred and Sadie's dismay - but to our profit, since the separation led to an enlightening exchange of letters. For this reason we are able to over hear the painter as he describes his progress with a painting and struggles with his definition of himself as an artist. He seems a man both modest and determined. As he wrote, 'My father told an aunt of mine once, 'Fred never says much but he does and gets what he wants.' Here are a few excerpts from these letters:

January 14, 1902: 'Am working hard on a picture and think it will come out pretty well... It's so hard to paint anything good - something that has artistic merit and is solid and well drawn and good color. It's maddening knowing what you want to do and not being able to do it. Perhaps I may some day. Who knows? Anyway, I get a little nearer all the time.'

January 20, 1902: 'Well, I finished my picture... I think it is pretty successful. Am sure it's better than last year's but can't hope for the same success to be repeated. It will probably be some years before other important steps will take place in my progress and it means so much hard plug and worry and disappointment that I lose courage when I think of it. This week I am doing nothing. Have no model.'

February 4, 1902: 'Things haven't been going well with me lately. Last week I destroyed my picture that I had been working five weeks on and it was the best one I had done in - only - just - because I couldn't get it to suit me quite. I lost my head and scraped the whole thing out. Have already started another of the same subject though and I hope to make it better than the last. If only I had someone to watch me and make me stop when I should I might paint much better things. I want you to come and watch me dear... I must hustle pretty hard or I won't have anything of importance for the Salon.'

February 18, 1902: 'I do so want to be a good painter and it's so beastly hard to do anything good. I'm most discouraged. One gets a thing done and is most pleased with it - for about a day - then you can't stand the sight of it any more. I just long for the time when I shall do something that I shall continue to like.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)  

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Calisthenics for the Artist

"Grey day on the river (Two Ladies in a Boat)"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke 

"Paris was no place for artists during the summer months. It was uncomfortably hot, and all of the other artists were gone. In the summer of 1901 Frieseke set off with a group of fellows for a three-months' stay in Brittany in the little fishing village )by this time also artist colony) of Le Pouldu. Excited by the series he had begun in the Luxembourg Gardens during the spring, Frieseke intended to concentrate on landscape.

His letters from Le Pouldu describe his surroundings and some of the summer's events:

We are staying in a private house, a fine old country house, part of it built in 1728, so it says on the sun dial... The country seems so lovely, and the sea and the river too... It seems so peaceful down here. The people are so slow and I like everything: the black and white cows, the narrow little lanes with the trees meeting overhead, the dunes with one lonely cottage almost hidden, and the farms, houses of stone with thatched roofs and surrounded by trees which the sea winds have blown and twisted in strange shapes.

I have to confess that landscape is by far the most difficult thing I have tackled and that I am utterly unable to grasp it so far.

Not long after his return from Brittany at the end of August, when Paris had begun to slide into the peculiar damp and sooty light of its winter, Frieseke began the first of a lifelong series of studio nudes. The study of the nude in the classroom atelier is as common to an artist as calisthenics are to an athlete. As a subject to command the attention of even an unruly student, the human body is hard to beat. It is straightforward, complex, varied, compelling, amusing, and measurable. And it is a valuable teaching tool since it either does or does not translate believably from three dimensions to a two-dimensional place. Its skin exhibits a surprising variety of colors in an excruciating sequence of almost indistinguishable shifts. 

But Frieseke was now out of the classroom and was looking to build a reputation. For him the nude subject must be not just a study but also a work of art." 

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)    

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Sadie

"Girl Dressing Her Hair"
by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"By this time Frederick Carl Frieseke had met the young woman who was to become his wife. Sarah Anne O'Bryan of Pittsburgh, known as Sadie, was the daughter of John Duross O'Bryan, an American jurist who had made and lost a series of fortunes in speculative ventures in the American West. O'Bryan was in the habit of bringing his wife and members of his large family to Paris from time to time, and in the late 1890s he still had two daughters to 'finish,' Sadie and her younger sister Janet. Sadie, highly intelligent, vivid, and variously talented, was subject to parents who never would have smiled upon educating her for a serious career. In Paris she studied drawing and painting as well as voice and cello. She and Frieseke met in Paris soon after his arrival. Their mutual attraction was speedy. Very early on they had agreed to a sort of provisional engagement, which was thwarted, however, by Sadie's father, who was opposed to the idea of his daughter marrying an artist.

Despite the regular income from Wanamaker's Frieseke was poor. His living and studio space was probably as cheap as could be found in the outskirts of Montparnasse. Henry Ossawa Tanner, who managed to live in very straightened circumstances, had space in the same building. Tanner was his senior by fifteen years and also an habitué of the American Art Association. The two became lifelong friends. In the neighboring spaces were the Australian painters James MacDonald, Ambrose Patterson, and Hugh Ramsay. The young men did much in common, shared meals and information, traveled together, and both criticized and borrowed from each other's work. They shared models as well, thus spreading the cost, and were on hand to cheer or bait one another."

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)    

 

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Associations

"Selecting a Necklace" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"The same year that Frederick Carl Frieseke had spent the summer sketching in Holland, James McNeill Whistler founded his Académie Carmen. Named for his Neapolitan model Carmen Rossi (who had posed for Rodin's 'The Kiss'), the Académie Carmen followed the formula devised by Julian, in which a model was available all day. Off the rue Notre Dame des Champs, the academy was in the midst of the Montparnasse artists' quarter. Frieseke attended it, as did Will Howe Foote, whose son later passed along a description of the instructional style of the master. 

When he did appear among the students, Whistler would do so in full dress - cane, gloves, and all - followed by an attendant. When the great man was moved to do so he would pause before a cringing student's wet canvas and, using the tips of his gloved fingers, inscribe corrections into the paint. He would then cast the soiled glove aside, accept a fresh glove from the attendant, and, slipping it on, proceed to the next student. Whistler, finding Frieseke at work in watercolor, thought enough of his efforts to suggest that he change to oils. Already a superior draftsman, with a line both accurate and elegant, Frieseke now added to this foundation instruction in the use of oils according to Whistler's method.

Soon after his arrival in Paris Frieseke made his way to the American Art Association of Paris, on the boulevard du Montparnasse. This club had the backing of such prominent Americans as Whitelaw Reid, minister to France, and Rodman Wanamaker, son of the department store magnate John Wanamaker. The club held regular exhibitions, where members could see each other's work. It also held special programs, and Frieseke would on occasion make spirited drawings for these. As a result there followed an invitation to become the illustrator of catalogues and advertisements for John Wanamaker's stores in Philadelphia and New York 'at a large salary,' an offer that Frieseke was able to finesse into a more modest arrangement that allowed him to remain in Paris. He agreed to provide Wanamaker with a regular supply of drawings in exchange for a salary that would cover his living expenses. The association with the Wanamakers was to continue, and to lead to significant commissions in later years."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)   

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Studies Abroad

"Woman in the Light of a Window"
by Frederick Carl Freiseke

"Although Frederick Carl Frieseke had set out to be no more than a journeyman draftsman producing the line drawings that were much in demand by the publishing industry, the young man changed course, deciding to become an artist. No doubt he was encouraged by such colleagues as Lawton Parker, then in his third year at the Art Students League, as well as by the larger cultural life of New York. 

Again with backing from his father - $500 this time - in September 1897 Frieseke sailed for France on the SS Massachusetts. With him was Will Howe Foote, a lifelong friend and fellow Michigander who had also been a student at the Art Institute of Chicago. Montparnasse, an historic neighborhood on the Left Bank in Paris, was to remain his home as long as he lived in Paris. This area, very much favored by Americans, attracted the chic as well as the least affluent of the young art students who flocked to Paris - the necessary place to come, both for their education and to introduce themselves into the pecking order of a thriving art establishment whose grand old men controlled access to the academies, the salons, and all hope of advancement.

Frieseke enrolled in the Acadèmie Julian in 1897 or 1898. Sometime prior to 1901, he engaged at least the criticism, and possibly the tutelage, of the painter Auguste Delecluse, who maintained an academy in Montparnasse. In 1890 Delecluse had joined the rebellious group seceding from the Société des Artiste Français and founded a new Salon, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. It was in the latter Salon that Frieseke, barely off the boat, exhibited three watercolors in April-May of 1899.

 During his first summer abroad, Frieseke went on a sketching trip to Holland, working exclusively in watercolor. His subject was primarily the landscape, as seen and rendered in the browns that were the academic mainstay of the period."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)   

 

Frederick Carl Frieseke: Birth

"Self-Portrait, 1938" by Frederick Carl Frieseke

"Frederick Carl Frieseke was born in 1874, one of the first generation of Friesekes born in the United States. At the time of his birth in 1874 much of the country was still wilderness, and many of its inhabitants had only recently arrived from Europe. In 1858 the artist's grandfather, Frederick Frieseke, a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo, arrived in Owosso, a small town in central Michigan. His sons Julius and Herman Carl enlisted in the Union cause, and once they had both completed their tours of duty, Herman established an operation to manufacture brick and drain tile from the local salmon-colored clay. The first paved streets in Owosso were surfaced with Frieseke brick and many of the town's buildings were made from the same material. Herman married Eva Graham of Owosso. Their first child, Edith, was born in 1871; Frederick Carl, the second, in 1874. Fred was six when his mother died.

In 1881, after his wife's death, Herman went to Jacksonville, Florida, taking the children with him. He remained there for the next four years, establishing a brick-making operation, but then went back to Michigan.The stay in Florida when Fred was at an impressionable age was to remain in his imagination, and late in his life, when he considered returning to the United States, it was toward Florida that he turned his thoughts.

He was sent to the public schools of Owosso. He drew continually but nonetheless graduated from Owosso's public high school. Although the drawings in his textbooks reveal the true course of his early talent, he was then - and continued to be - an avid reader, beginning with such rags-to-riches sagas as the Horatio Alger series and Charles Dickens' 'David Copperfield.' His course was set when, at the age of nineteen, he visited the art pavilion of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Here, in the midst of the visual riot of paintings, posters, and prints, he first recognized that there might be a living to be made with the talent for drawing he had been idly developing.

He attended classes at the Art Institute of Chicago between 1893 and 1896. Having mastered some basics, and confident in his skill as a draftsman, he persuaded his father to stake him to a season in New York. With $200 in journey money he made for New York, where he enrolled in the men's afternoon life class at the Art Students League. His plan was to make his living by selling cartoon drawings to such periodicals as 'Puck,' 'Truth,' and the 'New York Times.'

'I remember I didn't much like my winter in New York,' he wrote later to his fiancée. 'I was doing jokes, and it wasn't much to joke about, trying to make a living out of them. If I had had more success, though, I should never have come abroad, never have painted, and most important of all should never have know the dearest girl in the world.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Frederick Carl Frieseke: A Biography by Nicholas Kilmer" in Frederick Carl Frieseke: The Evolution of an American Impressionist"published on the occasion of an exhibition of Frieseke's work.)   

Daniel Chester French: A Heritage of Beauty

"Death and the Young Warrior" by Daniel French

"At the age of eighty-one, Daniel French took to his bed more frequently than ever, repeatedly felled by unspecified illnesses. In September he suffered a heart attack, but stubbornly refusing to be hospitalized, remained at home to convalesce. 'Mr. French may live to a hundred, and I hope he does,' commented his neighbor, 'but when the end comes, he will be found still working, like the artist in his own beautiful piece which stands in the Metropolitan Museum called 'Death and the Sculptor.' In truth, French's working days at the studio had come to an end.

On October 6, 1931, the ailing old sculptor summoned the strength to leave his bed while a nurse changed the sheets. He used the opportunity to glance out the window to take in the splendid view that had first enthralled him four decades earlier: his long-inspiring Chesterwood realm, so rich in memories of creative accomplishment and family happiness. The next morning Daniel Chester French died - as customary with him, without further word - in his sleep.

The funeral took place on Sunday, October 11, in the flower-bedecked Chesterwood studio, with his sculptures serving as a backdrop, and several of his plaster models arranged beside his coffin. Most conspicuous of all was his beckoning angel 'The Genius of Creation,' its hands outstretched toward the bier as if in blessing. Nearby stood the large model for the enthroned Lincoln, with French's many medals and awards arrayed at its base. To another side rested an unfinished bust in clay of Daniel Webster, with the working tools just as he had left them the last day he was in the studio.

During the memorial service, Frank Stockbridge read a poem he had composed to honor his friend:

'Where the great craftsmen stand
Close to the Throne -
Ageless the Sculptor's hand,
Flawless the stone -
There shall these hands work on
For work's pure joy alone,
Find in Celestial stone
Beauty unknown.'

French's onetime model, Rosalie Miller, whose musical studies the sculptor had helped to fund, then sang two hymns, ending with Schubert's 'Rest in Peace.' Afterwards, French's ashes returned to Concord for interment at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, where his 'Melvin Memorial' still stood. The gravestone was simple. Beneath a laurel wreath designed by his daughter, just four words were inscribed: 'A Heritage of Beauty.'"

(Excerpts from "Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French" by Harold Holzer.) 

 

Daniel Chester French: Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, Pt. 2

"The Angel of Death and the Sculptor" in marble
by Daniel Chester French

"Having brought the plaster version of "Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor" with him to Paris, Daniel French left it behind there to be cast in bronze. In May, the completed work went on exhibit at the Salon de Champs-Élysées, where it won a third-place medal from the jury, a rare honor for an American. 'To those who understand the undercurrents of the Parisian art world,' marveled art critic William A. Coffin, 'the significance of such an award under the circumstances is very great, for it shows that the work was thus recognized purely because of its transcendent merit.'

French had meanwhile shipped the plaster model back home to New York, where it soon stimulated an extraordinary publicity wave of its own, fueled by two separate and widely praised local exhibitions, the first at the Society of American Artists, the second at the New York Architectural League. Photographs of the model were soon 'seen in every picture store,' with sculptor Lorado Taft reporting that 'they hang in thousands of homes' and could be found 'in offices and upon the desks of men of business.' Applauded Taft: 'It is a wonderful thing, a very great privilege, to be able to talk thus to one's countrymen. - and to do it in a language so exalted, with an eloquence so sustained.'

The craze for these photos made French aware for the first time of a potentially lucrative confluence of media: sculpture and photography. One-dimensional images of his three-dimensonal works might not convey the full depth of the originals, but they could successfully 'puff' his creations and, in the bargain, earn extra money as authorized reproductions. Within months, the sculptor would copyright an official photograph of 'Death and the Sculptor,' presumably to begin marketing copies on his own. For the rest of his career, French kept a close watch on photographs of his statues, trying when he could to control the images and profit by them.

In August 1893, without the fanfare of an official public dedication, the Millmore family quietly installed the original bronze over their brother's gravesite at Forest Hills Cemetery. With the approval of the Milmore heirs, Dan French authorized four new plaster copies - one each for museums in Boston, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Chicago, where it became a mainstay and an inspiration to both writers and musicians. One poet composed an ode, a minister wrote and published a long sermon lauding French for 'shaping death as a friend', New England composer George Whitefield Chadwick created 'a Symphonic poem,' which he debuted at the New York Philharmonic that February, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, commissioned French to  produce a marble version for their permanent collection. By depicting an artist confronting the tenuousness of life against a backdrop of eternal mystery, he had managed to suggest that great art would outlast great artists - and much more."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Monument Man: The Life & Art of Daniel Chester French" by Harold Holzer.)

 

Daniel Chester French: Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor

"Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor"
by Daniel Chester French

"Without question, the most acclaimed of French's works in the 1890s was the ambitious composition in extreme high relief formally titled 'Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor.' This memorial to French's deceased contemporary and onetime artistic rival, Martin Milmore, was commissioned for the Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston.

French knew precisely what his subject looked like.. He had known Milmore in both Florence and Boston, though never intimately enough to consider him a close friend. Milmore had died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of thirty-eight in 1883, without ever approaching French's success.

French's original clay maquette showed an elaborately winged angel calling home a vigorous young sculptor midwork, his chisel and mallet in hand, and his knee resting on a ledge for support as he labors on a sculpture of his own. His final composition strayed little from this. It showed the angel of death hooded, her face in somber and perpetual shadow, yet somehow unthreatening, even comforting. She would appear clutching a garland of poppies, signifying both death and the bestowal of fame, leaning towards and gently touching the chisel held by the visibly startled, quintessentially modern young artist. 

As always, French conducted methodical research to get his details exactly right. In 1890, he even wrote to his childhood bird-watching companion, William Brewster, with this request: 'I have this winter to model an angel and it occurred to me...that you might help me in the study of wings. Can't you without much trouble...get me a lot of them? I should like half a dozen pairs or so of different kinds and sizes, not with a view of copying anyone particular specimen, but for the purpose of studying up on the subject.' Before long, French's studio boasted a collection of birds wings. 

He took a plaster version with him on yet another extended European trip that began in November 1891. Returning to Paris, he established a 'dear little studio" not far from the Arc de Triomphe. Here, French received compliments from guests who inspected the Milmore as it progressed, and then basked in additional praise from a hundred 'artists and otherwise" who visited  when French exhibited the finished plaster at a studio salon in January 1892.  

To be continued

(Excerpts from "Daniel Chester French: The Lincoln Memorial's Sculptor" by Cynthia Close for "Art & Object.")

 

Daniel Chester French: Lighting the Lincoln Memorial

"When the Lincoln Monument was finished and the statue put in place, it was found that the lighting was so bad that for those first few years it was a constant grief to the sculptor and his artist friends. If Mr. Bacon had lived, this could, of course, have been corrected, but, with the architect of the building gone, it became a serious problem.

As at first designed, the whole ceiling was of glass, the light coming from above, as it should, to light the statue properly. During the process of building, the scheme was changed and a slightly colored marble was used in place of the glass. This gave a beautiful soft glow to the interior of the great room, but, alas! it, in conjunction with the hard light coming from the blue sky in front, was fatal to the face. At certain times of the day it was well enough, but at other times the effect was distressing. It made the face lined and haggard, and the knees unduly prominent. I think at the time, Mr. French was so discouraged about it, and for a while so hopeless of any solution of the problem, that he felt that it could never look as it was intended to look."*

"Nothing could be done, of course, without the government's sanction and an appropriation from Congress. When French's initial appeals fell on deaf ears, he turned to modern technology for evidence. He had photographs made of the large model still at Chesterwood - lit perfectly by his overhead studio skylight. Then he ordered corresponding photos of the statue in Washington as it looked in the worst possible light streaming in from the visitor entrance, then he released the comparative shots to the public.

In 1927, he asked Ulysses S. Grant III, the new director of public buildings and grounds, to allow Tiffany & Co. to try designing new glass panels overhead - to no avail. Finally he turned to the Sunlike Illuminating Company to design 'not merely a bulb, but a specially made reflector with a prismatic arrangement of cobalt oxide mirrors inside' to light the statue artificially. At last Grant came around, and floodlights were finally installed on the ceiling, removing the last barrier to the perfection French had long sought for the Lincoln Memorial. He described himself as a 'happier man' after visiting Washington in the spring of 1929 and finding the illumination 'more satisfactory than I could have believed possible.'**

To be continued

(* Excerpts from "Memories of a Sculptor's Wife" by Mary Adams French.
** Excerpts from "Daniel Chester French: The Lincoln Memorial's Sculptor" by Cynthia Close for "Art & Object.")