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.)