The Red Rose Girls: Alphonse Mucha

"The Child and Tradition" by Violet Oakley

"Cogslea was in easy walking distance of the Allen's Lane train station, and Jessie Willcox Smith, Elizabeth Shippen Green and Violet Oakley took advantage of their proximity to convenient transportation and started going into Philadelphia frequently. Even Violet, who was making good progress on the Harrisburg panels was ready to go out and have some fun.

When the great Alphonse Mucha, icon of the French Art Nouveau movement, was sponsored by the Plastic Club to speak at Witherspoon Hall in Philadelphia, they were in the audience. Mucha, who spoke no English, lectured with the aid of an interpreter. In high spirits, Violet commemorated the occasion to amuse Henrietta who, as usual, stayed home.

'Mr. Mucha says: Vat is Arrt? It is bewtee. The pairson who is onable to comprehend the mor-r-ral ar-r-monies in onable to comprehend feesicle ar-r-monies. The Amer-rican landscape is a r-rich if not r-richer than the Eur-r-ropean landscape. In composition everything should be in proportion of two to three. If not, we say it is ogly - illustrates on blackboard - then it is bewtee. Vat is bewtee? It is the manifestation of mor-ral ar-rmony (develops the 2 to 3 formula.'

In 1906 after four years of concentrated effort, Violet finished the murals for the Governor's Reception Room. On November 23 the lights burned all night in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg as Violet, forfeiting any sleep at all, supervised the workmen hired to install the panels. They finished at 6 a.m., just as the crowds started to arrive fort he ceremonies. The governor, Samuel Pennypacker, who reached his office early in the morning, was surprised to see thousands already assembled. 

When the paintings were unveiling, Pennypacker was as pleased with the murals as any of the citizens. The critics were kind too, and Violet was elated with the subsequent acclaim, which secured her a place as an important member of the American Renaissance Revival movement. The former managing director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, praised her great achievement: "Miss Oakley's work precisely resembles the better achievements of the Venetian School... This great achievement will grow with every year it is seen and studied. In it there has been depicted what is unquestionably rare in modern art - a genuine spiritual conviction.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)

The Red Rose Girls: Cogslea

The Garden Fountain at Cogslea

"In August of 1905, after several months of secret negotiations, H. S. Kerbaugh, purchased the Red Rose Inn and two hundred surrounding acres for $200,000. In January, Violet Oakley, Jessie Smith, Elizabeth Green and Henrietta Cozens were served with an eviction notice stating: 'Each of you are hereby notified and required to quit and deliver up to me possession of the said premises, which you now hold as tenant under me, at the expiration of the said lease, namely, the first day of May, A.D. 1906, as I desire to have such possession.'

The eviction notice caught the Red Rose Girls completely off guard. Later, friends would tell them that so many people advised Henry Kerbaugh not to disturb his famous tenants, that he lost his temper and shouted, 'I don't want any beggarly artists on the place!' His decision to turn them out put the household in turmoil. What were they to do?

Help came from one of Philadelphia's wealthiest citizens, Dr. George Woodward. After much discussion, Woodward agreed to renovate a partially burnt-out house located on his property near the picturesque Cresheim Creek. The old house had thick stone walls and an adjacent barn and carriage house that could serve as studio space. He hired the noted architect Frank Miles Day to make the necessary improvements. George Walter Dawson was engaged to lay out the gardens, which the artists stipulated should, as closely as possible, duplicate the grounds at their beloved Red Rose Inn - complete with the fountain, distinctive pergola, clematis and red roses. The extraordinary generosity of the Woodward family mitigated the artists' distress over leaving their home, and the four companions were able to relocated with minimal interruption of their busy schedules. 

They named their new home Cogslea, keeping the acronym they had devised for their eccentric family and adding 'lea' for the sloping land of the new estate. They were forever grateful for the generosity of the Woodward family and affectionately called their benefactor St. George. The name stuck, and although the original address for Cogslea was Allen's Lane, the present address of the home (now a national historic site) is St. George's Road."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)

The Red Rose Girls: Murals at the Pennsylvania Capitol, Pt. 2

"Penn's Examination in the Tower of London"
by Violet Oakley

"When Violet Oakley returned from Europe, she began to work in earnest on the murals for the Governor's Reception Room at the Pennsylvania State Capitol building in Harrisburg. She called the series, 'The Founding of the State of Liberty Spiritual.' There were to be eighteen horizontal panels, all six feet in height, the longest panel measuring nineteen feet. She composed a narrative beginning with the events in Europe that led to William Penn's vision of religious freedom in a peaceful, unarmed state, and ending with his first sight of the shores of Pennsylvania.

 Violet felt the realization of Penn's dream was imminent and would devote much of her life to pursuing his hope for international disarmament, harmony and understanding. She worked productively, completing six panels and a study for the seventh, which she submitted to the jury at the Pennsylvania Academy's 100th anniversary exhibition. All her hard work, the long hours in the studio, and the costly research trip to Europe were rewarded by the Academy's gold medal. 

However, three of her panels on display led to serious controversy. As part of her narrative they showed the vehement opposition of the Catholic Church to William Tyndal's translation of the Bible into English in 1525, which ended in his strangulation at the stake with his corpse being burned. The president of the American Catholic Historical Society wrote a long letter to the governor contending that the subject matter was 'irrelevant' and 'inappropriate' for the new State Capitol, and that it would be impolitic to install them.

An upset Violet explained that in order to understand William Penn's motivations for leaving his native land, it was necessary to understand the magnitude of the religious intolerance that existed in England. She noted that the rest of paintings in the series would tell a different story. When the sequence was concluded the public would understand 'the beauty of tolerance, versus the darkness of intolerance.' In the newspaper accounts she sounded confident, well-informed, and mature beyond her thirty-one years. 

Still, she must have been terribly worried. She had only a year left on the project. Most of the money due for the paintings was already spent. She needed critical acclaim to secure her next commission. The press reported that the governor sustained 'the historic accuracy of the paintings and their fitness for decorations in Pennsylvania's Capitol,' but he made no public statement on the subject at all."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)

The Red Rose Girls: Preparing for the Harrisburg Murals

 

"The Vision of St. Augustine" by Vittore Carpaccio

"In 1902, the state of Pennsylvania was engaged in building a new State Capitol building, to replace the previous edifice, destroyed in a disastrous fire. The architect saw it not only as a place to conduct the business of the commonwealth but also as a museum to applaud the history and contributions of the citizenry. When Violet Oakley's work was brought to his attention, he decided to take a chance on the talents of the young artist and commissioned her to paint eighteen murals for the Governor's Reception Room. Although the majority of the murals were assigned to the well-known illustrator and muralist Edwin Austin Abbey, the eighteen paintings for the Reception Room constituted a sizable task. It was the first time an American woman artist had received such a prestigious assignment. Violet was offered $20,000 for the project, which would take her four years to complete. She accepted $5,000 immediately as an advance against expenses. 

Never judicious with her money or adept at making long-range financial palns, the sum seemed inexhaustible to her. In preparation for the job, she sailed for England in March 1903, inviting her mother to accompany her. When she arrived in England, Violet set to work exhaustively researching the life of William Penn. She also spent time in London's museums and galleries and gained artistic inspiration from Pre-Raphaelite painters Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones.  During the summer of 1903, she traveled to Rome, Florence, Venice, Assisi, Perugia, and Siena, studying mural painting techniques and analyzing the works of the Italian masters. In Venice she discover the mural paintings of Carpaccio in the Church of San Giorgio degli Schivoni and found inspiration for her own project.

The trip was Violet's first time away from her friends in five years. As the weeks went on, she missed her companions and begged for some word but received nothing from them. The truth was that her fellow 'Red Roses' had not forgotten her, they were just occupied with their own work and the management of their extensive property. In September she concluded her studies and boarded the the Royal Mail Steamship 'Umbria' for the return voyage. She wrote her friends: 'I want every single one of you to be there - so please let me know... I wish I could be surprised by a line of Red Roses on the dock.'"

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)

The Red Rose Girls: The "Cogs"

"The Red Roses: Elizabeth Shippen Green, Violet Oakley,
Jessie Willcox Smith and Henrietta Cozens

"As the ties between the women intensified, they began to refer to each other as sisters and to call each other by pet names. Jessie Smith became Jeddy, Elizabeth Green, Liddy, and Henrietta Cozens, Heddy. They tried out Viddy, for Violet, but somehow a diminutive did not mesh with her solemn personality and increasingly volatile temper. She preferred 'Violet, Duchess of Oaks.' The four women also chose a common surname, dubbing themselves the 'Cogs' family: 'C' for Cozens, 'O' for Oakley, 'G' for Green, and 'S' for Smith. Their teacher and mentor Howard Pyle called them the 'Red Rose Girls.'

1902 brought several honors to the household. The Plastic Club Exhibition Committee offered them a three-woman show. Jessie Smith managed to accumulate an impressive group of thirty illustrations. Advertising work for Procter & Gamble shared space with book illustrations, numerous magazine illustrations, and the designs for the Bryn Mawr calendar. Elizabeth Green contributed her calendar illustrations, as well as magazine illustrations. Violet Oakley exhibited two covers for 'Collier's Weekly,' some charcoal drawings, and her designs for the All Angels' stained-glass windows and chancel decorations. The show lasted from February third to the fifteenth and garnered favorable reviews from the local press, which noted that, even though they lived and worked together, the three friends maintained their artistic integrity. As noted: 'In illustration Miss Green shows possibly the most originality, Miss Smith the finest finish and Miss Oakley the strongest decorative sense.'

The success of the exhibition was an important step in the careers of all three artists, but it was the move to the Red Rose Inn that filled them with optimism. Photographs taken just prior to the move capture their high spirits. In one staged tableau, the four women sit around a table covered with beer mugs and wine bottles and hold up glasses filled with milk. In another the three artists, wearing the smocks they used for painting, are posed in front of Violet's poster design for the Plastic Club exhibition. Each grasps a long-stemmed red rose as Henrietta Cozens, holding a fourth rose, raises a watering can over her friends' heads."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.) 

 

The Red Rose Girls: Henrietta Cozens

"I Love the Cat" by Jessie Willcox Smith

"By the time Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green were ready to relocate to the Red Rose Inn, the household had expanded to include their friend Henrietta Cozens. Although not an artist, Henrietta had agreed to shoulder the responsibility of managing the property and overseeing all domestic chores. Her compelling interest was in gardening. She had no career ambitions other than to fulfill the traditional expectations of a proper Victorian housewife, since she had no intention to marry (although she had, at one point, been engaged), and had decided to commit her time and energy to managing the household for her three friends. 

Henrietta was senior member of the group, forty-three years old. She was a small, sharp-featured, reclusive woman with a strong will and a dedication to proper decorum that made her an ideal companion for the thirty-nine-year-old Jessie. Effervescent Elizabeth and intense Violet were almost a generation younger. Jessie must have welcomed the presence of another mature woman who shared her sense of propriety. In the many letters written over the course of her lifetime there was not one hint of criticism but rather effusive compliments of her capabilities as a homemaker. Her presence at the inn made the collaboration function like a family and enabled the women to enjoy a gentrified life while maintaining a punishing work schedule.

Even with Henrietta's assistance the women needed household servants: a cook, a maid and workers to help in the extensive gardens. The rent at the Red Rose was $125 a month, household expenses - not counting the money they paid to have their washing done or the maid's wages - typically came to over $500 a month, plus each had agreed to subsidize a portion of Henrietta's rent, and each had the burden of her own business expenses. In addition, Violet planned to invite her mother to come and live at the inn, and Elizabeth had similar plans for both her aging parents. The women were savvy enough to anticipate the seriousness of these increased financial obligations. So just before the move they made a vow, a solemn agreement to stay together for life."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.) 

The Red Rose Girls: The Red Rose Inn

"The Red Rose" by Violet Oakley

"Philadelphia summers were notoriously unpleasant. The weather occasioned much misery, causing more than one resident to recall with irony William Penn's proud boast that his city lay 'six hundred miles nearer the sun' than England. The heat also caused Violet Oakley, Jessie Willcox Smith and Elizabeth Shippen Green to take their work and escape to the country.

One day, as summer was waning and their return to the city imminent, they drove out to Villanova to see the famous Red Rose Inn. The estate had been the subject of numerous newspaper articles centering around the plans of the owner, Frederick Phillips, to turn the property into an artists' colony by subdividing the more than eight-hundred-acre property, building new homes on these lots and then leasing them to creative people with few resources but refined taste who might then 'develop their talents amid the graceful surroundings of country life.' 

In spite of legal battles from family members and neighbors, Phillips' grand scheme was not completely thwarted. He opened the farmhouse to the public as the Red Rose Inn, planting a garden full of red roses and presenting one to each of his visitors when they signed the guest book. 

Eventually, he won his legal battles and was proceeding towards the establishment of his initial dream when his death halted all plans. His litigious relatives immediately put the Red Rose Inn, along with 205 acres of the property up for sale, so Violet, Elizabeth and Jessie made plans to tour the grounds before it was too late. After seeing it, Violet wrote: 'I knew at once that I had come home. This was it.'

Purchasing it was far beyond their means ($200,000), but they formulated a plan to rent the estate.  Elizabeth's cousin, who was a lawyer, approached the agent with their proposition, and in the spring of 1901, they leased the inn for a year and a half with the intent to extend if possible. Violet explained to the nearby residents, 'This is not going to be an artist's colony at all. We have grown tired of working in the midst of trolley cars, drays and heavy traffic, so we three are going out to where the green trees grow, where the cows roam and where the air is pure, and quietness prevails..."

To be continued

(Excerpts from "The Red Rose Girls: Art and Love on Philadelphia's Main Line" by Alice A. Carter.)