The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris

by David McCullough

  For a comprehensive study of American students and their atelier masters, nothing equals H. Barbara Weinberg’s The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth-Century American Painters and Their French Teachers (1991).

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  331 I began to live: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 132.

  331 “I have never seen”: James, Parisian Sketches: Letters to the New York Tribune, 1875–1876, 39.

  331 To help meet expenses: Ibid., xiii.

  331 “sense of Parisian things”: Ibid., 3.

  332 “decidedly the most”: Ibid., 21.

  332 “looked and looked again”: Lewis, The Jameses: A Family Narrative, 86.

  332 Called The American: James, The American, 33.

  332 The street was relatively quiet: Rue de Luxembourg is now rue Cambon. Author’s visit to the street and location of James’s apartment. See also James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, 3.

  332 “If you were to see me”: Ibid., 6.

  332 “Considering how nice”: Ibid.

  333 “taken a desperate plunge”: Ibid., 20.

  333 “I am waiting anxiously”: Ibid., 17.

  333 “Love to all in superabundance”: James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, ed. Edel, 47.

  333 He was in Paris to work: Ibid., 23.

  333 “I want the biggest kind of entertainment”: James, The American, 58.

  333 “What shall I tell you?”: James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, ed. Edel, 35.

  333 “The spring is now quite settled”: Ibid., 41.

  333 Since the brutal catastrophes: Galignani’s Messenger, October 5, 1872.

  333 In a single week: Ibid., September 21, 1872.

  334 “the recipient of much attention”: Ibid., October 21, 1872.

  334 It is generally acknowledged: Galignani’s Messenger, January 6, 1872.

  335 Will Low, an art student: Low, A Painter’s Progress: Six Discourses Forming the Fifth Annual Series of the Scammon Lectures, Delivered Before the Art Institute of Chicago, April, 1910,146.

  335 George Healy, with his wife: See George P. A. Healy to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, November 11, 1874, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to George P. A. Healy, October 19, 1874, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  335 “We can give garden parties”: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 270.

  335 The Healys had been among: George P. A. Healy to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, November 5, 1872, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  336 “Healy is strong in portraits”: Thomas Gold Appleton to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, June 3, 1875, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

  336 “This will be an historical picture”: “Souvenir of the Exhibition Entitled Healy’s Sitters or a Portrait Panorama of the Victorian Age,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1950, 54.

  336 “I go every morning”: Excerpt from the Diary of Edith Healy, Rome, October 9, 1868, Archives of American Art.

  337 Mary Cassatt, too, had been hard hit: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 75.

  337 In 1866, at twenty-one: Ibid., 29.

  337 I think she has a great deal of talent: Eliza Haldeman to Mrs. Samuel Haldeman, May 15, 1867, Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 46.

  337 “It is much pleasanter”: Ibid., 54.

  338 “She is only an amateur”: Mary Cassatt to Lois Cassatt, August 1, 1869, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  338 “Oh how wild I am”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 77.

  338 “The Hôtel de Ville”: Ibid., 80.

  338 “Don’t be disheartened”: Emily Sartain to her father, February 26, 1872, Moore College of Art.

  338 On one excursion: Ibid., August 4, 1872.

  339 I must candidly confess: Galignani’s Messenger, June 22, 1872.

  339 “Velázquez oh!”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 103.

  339 “She astonished me”: Ibid., 124.

  339 Mary Cassatt had been born: Sweet, Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Pennsylvania, 7.

  339 Her father, Robert Simpson Cassatt: Ibid.

  340 But the mother and father: Ibid., 18.

  340 At sixteen Mary: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 14.

  340 When, at twenty: Ibid., 26.

  340 The summer of 1874: Ibid., 92.

  341 “Miss Cassatt’s tall figure”: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 86.

  341 Once having seen her: Ibid.

  341 “I felt that Miss Cassatt”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 101.

  341 “Miss C. is a tremendous talker”: Emily Sartain to her father, May 25, 1875, Moore College of Art.

  341 Emily went home: See Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 70, n. 1.

  342 “I would go there”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 114.

  342 She took Louisine: Hale, Mary Cassatt, 54.

  342 The price was 500 francs: Ibid.

  343 To learn to paint: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 195.

  343 “happy American youths”: Weinberg, The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth-Century American Painters and Their French Teachers, 199.

  344 Years later, recalling the “advent” of Sargent: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 205.

  344 I had a place: “Sargent and his Painting,” Century Monthly Magazine, Vol. 52 (June 1896), 72.

  344 The master studied these: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 205.

  345 The spring comes: FitzWilliam Sargent to his mother from Florence, Italy, October 10, 1870, Archives of American Art.

  345 She also suffered spells: Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait, 1.

  346 “Mary’s income”: Letter of FitzWilliam Sargent, November 24, 1869, Archives of American Art.

  346 His first memory: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 8.

  346 “Drawing seems to be his favorite”: FitzWilliam Sargent to his father from Florence, Italy, March 1, 1870, Archives of American Art.

  346 “He is a good boy”: Ibid.

  346 “I see myself”: FitzWilliam Sargent to his father from Dresden, November 11, 1871, Archives of American Art.

  347 “We hear that the French”: FitzWilliam Sargent to his father from Paris, May 19, 1874, Archives of American Art.

  347 “So,” explained FitzWilliam: Ibid., May 30, 1874, Archives of American Art.

  347 “works with great patience”: Ibid.

  348 “one of the most talented”: Young, The Life and Letters of J. Alden Weir, 50.

  348 “makes me shake”: Diary of J. Carroll Beckwith, October 13, 1874, National Academy of Design.

  348 One must look for the middle-tone: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 39.

  348 “If you begin with the middle-tone”: Ibid.

  348 we cleared the studio: Davis, Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, 72.

  349 “Of course, we are dealing”: Low, A Painter’s Progress, 90.

  349 “There were no difficulties for him”: Gay, Memoirs of Walter Gay, 40.

  349 “the most highly educated”: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 47.

  349 “very sensible and beautiful”: Young, Life and Letters of J. Alden Weir, 55.

  349 “The society of the Sargents”: Diary of J. Carroll Beckwith, March 16, 1875, National Academy of Design.

  349 In the spring of 1876: FitzWilliam Sargent to his sister, January 7, 1876, and to his brother Tom, April 13, 1876, Archives of American Art.

  350 Yet curiously nothing is known: See FitzWilliam Sargent to his brother, May 13, 1876, Archives of American Art.

  350 His Philadelphia cousin, Mary Hale: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 52.

  350 The three touring Sargents: Ibid., 51–52.

  350 In spring, John’s friend Will Low: Low, A Chronicle of Friendships, 1873–1900, 52.

  350 In the spring of 1877: American Register, April 28, 1877.

  351 Pedestrian traffic on the Pont Neuf: Ibid., May 5, 1877.

  351 “Among our American portrait painters”: Ibid., April 28, 1877.

&
nbsp; 351 Another of Healy’s subjects: The portrait of Dr. Thomas Evans is at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

  352 “I accepted with joy”: Hale, Mary Cassatt, 61.

  352 “Finally I could work”: Ibid.

  352 He dressed always: Ibid., 59.

  352 His mother was an American: Ibid., 62.

  352 The American art student Walter Gay: Gay, Memoirs of Walter Gay, 44.

  352 “Oh, my dear, he is dreadful!”: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 112.

  352 “Oh,” Mary answered: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 149.

  353 “You know we live up very high”: Katherine Cassatt to her granddaughter, July 2, 1878, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  353 Paris was “a wonder to behold”: Robert Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, October 4, 1878, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  353 “interested in everything”: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 86.

  354 “It is pleasant to see how well”: Ibid., 103.

  354 “Here there is but one opinion”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 138.

  354 “The doctor frightened us”: Katherine Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, n.d., Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  354 In this case Degas advised her: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 101.

  355 They lived “as usual”: Katherine Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, December 23, 1881, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

  355 “on fame and money”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 189.

  355 After eight and a half years: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 353.

  355 He submitted his resignation: Ibid., 352.

  355 “After a reasonably good passage”: Ibid., 353.

  356 As expected, the arrival of General Grant: American Register, November 3, 1877.

  356 “It has been a mystery to me”: Grant, Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, November 11, 1876–September 30, 1878, Vol. XXVIII, 299.

  356 “The contrast between the two”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 193.

  12. The Farragut

  The letters of Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her parents are exceptional in their quantity—nearly 150 in total—and in that they cover the entire time when she and Augustus were in Paris between 1877 and 1880. But they are also unique and of greatest value in that they are the observations of an American bride coping with the altogether new kind of life on the Left Bank.

  Her letters are part of the large body of Saint-Gaudens papers at Dartmouth College, in the Rauner Special Collections Library.

  The building at 3 rue Herschel is still there, a block from the Luxembourg Gardens, and with the diagram of the apartment that she drew in one of her letters, as well as the interior views she provided in two of her paintings, it is easy to picture the setting of their way of life.

  The studio where the Farragut was created is gone, but the nearby building where John Singer Sargent and Carroll Beckwith shared a studio apartment is still there.

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  357 His whole soul: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her parents, January 25, 1874, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  357 “We have bought a Persian rug”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, July 22, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  357 “art current”: Ibid., from Rome, n.d.

  358 Winslow Homer was her first cousin: Tharp, Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Era, 145.

  358 Her father, Thomas Homer: Thomas Homer to his son, May 10, 1868, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  358 Since meeting her “Mr. Saint-Gaudens”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her parents, December 26, 1873, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  358 Medium sized, neither short nor tall: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, from Rome, n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  358 “Now I must tell you”: Ibid., February 2, 1874.

  359 His education in everything: Ibid.

  359 “I am not dead in love”: Ibid.

  359 “I am very sure”: Ibid., from Rome, n.d.

  359 Years later, however, in an uncharacteristic: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 72.

  359 “What I have is a splendid”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Thomas Homer, March 1, 1874, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  360 If successful: Ibid.

  360 He cut her a cameo engagement ring: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 144.

  360 “You’ll have to get used to a Gus”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, n.d., but in July–December, 1873, file of Augusta Saint-Gaudens Correspondence, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  360 Once prosperous: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 65.

  360 “like a great fire”: Ibid., 77.

  360 He rented a shabby studio: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 154.

  360 Hearing from Gussie: Ibid., 174.

  360 Soon after, Saint-Gaudens learned: See Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 162–72.

  361 A sum of $9,000: See copy of contract between Saint-Gaudens and City of New York dated May 23, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  361 “I have made two models”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 163.

  361 He and Gussie were married: Ibid.

  361 Two days later: Ibid.

  362 Gus said it was the wine: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, August 14, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  362 “I wish someone would invite”: Ibid., October 26, 1877.

  362 Only think there are twenty-four families: Ibid., October 18, 1877.

  362 “Aug keeps wracking”: Ibid., no date, but written from 178 boulevard Pereire, Paris, France, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  362 “While Gussie is wrestling”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Homer, September 26, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  362 “She eats more, sleeps more”: Ibid.

  363 You write splendid letters: Ibid.

  363 The following spring: See letter of April 22, 1878, from Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College. In the letter Gussie included a sketch of the apartment.

  363 “a beautiful Japanese matting”: Ibid., May 17, 1878.

  363 You have no idea: Ibid., July 25, 1878.

  364 like “Cinderella”: Ibid., June 13, 1878.

  364 Gus was devoted: See “Biography of Louis Saint-Gaudens—Handwritten in Pencil,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 9.

  364 “He is certainly the easiest person”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, October 11 (no year), Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  364 However, I forgive you: Bernard Saint-Gaudens to Augustus and Louis Saint-Gaudens, Drafts of the “Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  365 Working as never before: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 211; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 88.

  365 The new studio: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 88.

  365 “by the alternate waves of exaltation”: Armstrong, Day Before Yesterday: Reminiscences of a Varied Life, 266.

  365 For additional help on the Farragut: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 90.

  365 “He hasn’t a cent”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Genie Emerson, September 6, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

  366 Before leaving New York: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 164–65.

  366 “a spur to higher endeavor”: Ibid., 161.

  366 He and Saint-Gaudens had met first: Ibid., 159.

  367 “devouring love of ice cream”: Ibid., 160.

  367 Early in 1878, hearing that White: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 98.

  367 “When you come over”: Ibid.

  367 “I hope you will let me help y
ou”: Ibid.