The Artist in Her Own Words

Author(s): Christine Havice

Source: Woman's Art Journal , Autumn, 1981 - Winter, 1982, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn,
1981 - Winter, 1982), pp. 1-7
Published by: Woman's Art Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1357974

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 The Artist in Her Own Words

CHRISTINE HAVICE

...
... ititisisfar
far
more
more
important
important
at the at
moment
the moment
to know how
to know how
invaluable
invaluable because,
because,particularly
particularlyfor for
women
women who
who
create,
create,
"art
"art
much
muchmoney moneywomen
women
had and
hadhow
andmany
how rooms
many than
rooms
to than to
history
history without
withoutartists"
artists"isisananarid
arid
exercise,
exercise,
a half-told
a half-told
story.
story.
theorize about their capacities....
Our concern is to know from the artist in her own words
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own, 1929 "how much money... and how many rooms... ," not because
we wish to theorize but because we need to anchor present
In the preface to his edition of Berthe Morisot's experience firmly in relation to the past.
correspondence, her grandson Denis Rouart states that
In their classic study of legends about artists and artistic
intimate confessions or ideas on art are absent, that she
creativity, Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz emphasize that much
almost never touches on fundamental questions.1 While one
historiography traces its lineage to a limited number of
might object that the confessional genre is not best suited to
archetypal stories. One such account, in which a youth
letters and that few artists are inclined to make artistic
sketches the sheep he tends and is discovered by a passing
manifestos in epistolary form, the major criticism of
older artist who then undertakes to train the youth, provides
Rouart's claim lies with his definition - or lack thereof- of
the structure for opening many Renaissance biographies of
"fundamental questions." Such a critical approach was the
great artists. 2 It is amusing therefore to encounter Tiburce
point of Virginia Woolf's lecture at Girton College (quoted
Morisot's recollection of the discovery of his sister Berthe's
from above) and continues to shape much current study and
talent, for he invokes a similar cast of characters: Berthe
reexamination of women's role in and contributions to
executed a sketch to solve a problem in light values using a
society. Berthe Morisot actually left us statements on the
flock of sheep and thereby demonstrated her potential to her
desirability of marriage, on her sense of loneliness as she
teacher, who, according to Tiburce, was "almnost frightened"
passed age 30, on her wish for a child and the subsequent
by its magnitude.3
disappointment that her only child was a girl, and,
repeatedly, on the life-sustaining force of work. While there Yet Berthe Morisot herself in no way subscribed to any
were certainly other significant issues in her world with notions of her talent which might have smacked of legend:
which her somewhat conventional letters do not deal; ". . this painting, this work thatyou mourn for, is the cause
Morisot does take up many of the "fundamental questions" of many griefs and many troubles. . ."(19 March 1869). The
that women must face and resolve today as they did a published letters, written between 1869 and the eve of her
century ago. death, reveal alternating self-doubt ("I found my painting
hung in the corridor and it is horrible, Julie [her daughter
It is from such a perspective, one which Virginia Woolf
and subject of the work] looked frightful, one can see only the
most likely would have applauded, that the published
harshness and the effect that went into it," Winter 1890-91)
writings of Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Mary Cassatt(1844-
and satisfaction, even joy ("This place is delightful; I am
1926), Cecilia Beaux (1855-1944), Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun
working, I am doing aloes, orange trees - in short a whole
(1755-1842), Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899), Barbara Leigh
exotic vegetation that is quite difficult to draw .. ." Fall
Smith (Bodichon) (1827-1891), Marie Bashkirtseff (1859-
1888).
1884), and Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) will be examined.
These works are rather few by comparison with the Her family was solidly middle-class but her mother had
plentitude of published letters, diaries, and memoirs of arranged for and encouraged the artistic education of the
female literary figures. Yet as anyone who has read the two younger sisters, Berthe and Edma, and established the
lively correspondence of Rosa Bonheur or the moving Morisot household as a congenial gathering-place for artists,
journals and letters of Kithe Kollwitz will attest, these writers, and musicians. Despite this influence upon and
autograph works still offer us the most intimate and vivid - sympathy for her daughter, Mme. Morisot sometimes
if not always the most complete - view of the artist in her displayed a lack of understanding for Berthe's m6tier,4
world that we can obtain. The immediacy of such writingswhich was exacerbated by tensions within the family,
and their numerical scarcity make those we do have Berthe notes, as she grew older without showing any interest

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2 Woman's Art Journal

in
inherhermarriage
marriage
prospects.
prospects.
Her sisterHer
Edmasister
remainedEdmaher remained her
my friend calls
calls herself
herself aa painter
painter she
she is
is only
only an
an amateur
amateurandand
closest
closest confidante;
confidante;
BertheBerthe
turned toturned
her for the
to her
emotional you must
for the know
know how
emotional how we
we professionals
professionals despise
despise amateurs.
amateurs.. .."."
and
andeven
evenprofessional
professional
supportsupport
she needed,
she
andneeded,
it is only and
to (1 August
it is only1869).
1869).
to AA much
much later
later epistle
epistle to
to Mrs.
Mrs. Potter
PotterPalmer
Palmer
Edma that Berthe revealed an awareness of the difficulties on the subject
subject of
of her
her murals
murals for
for the
the Columbian
Columbian Exposition
Exposition
of being both an artist and a woman: "Remember that it is does contain reference to occasional self-doubt as well as to
sad to be alone . . . a woman has an immense need of her regard for Degas' criticism: "I have been half a dozen
affection. For her to withdraw into herself is to attempt the
times on the point of asking Degas to come and see my work,
impossible" (19 March 1869). but if he happens to be in the mood he would demolish me so
completely that I could never pick myself up in time to finish
Other letters to family, to her husband Eugene Manet, to
for the exposition. Still he is the only man I know whose
artist-colleagues, and to poet and family friend Stephan
judgment would be a help to me" (1 December 1892). Her
Mallarme mingle domestic accounts, speculation about
letters suggest that Degas was the only artist for whom she
exhibitions and sales, and a few almost involuntary
reactions to the events of two and a half momentous decades.
had respect, even after they ceased to speak to one another
over differences regarding the Dreyfus affair: ". . . he was
The letters reveal that the artist's work frequently had to be
my oldest friend here and the last great artist of the
put aside for reasons of domestic distractions, health and, in
nineteenth century. I see no one to replace him" (28
1870, even war, and one senses that Berthe was painfully
September 1917).
aware of what these interruptions were costing her even as
she felt powerless to organize her life otherwise. Her future Cassatt's estimation of other women artists was not
brother-in-law ]douard Manet had once gently reproved flattering; while there are several passing references t
her for her lack of discipline,5 and it was probably this Berthe Morisot in the letters (and several in Morisot's to
deficiency that, even with the full complement of household Cassatt), there is no special sympathy evident between the
staff and a husband who served as her agent, prevented her two. Cassatt dismisses Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, probably
from attaining her full potential as an artist while she the best-known woman painter France had produced before
endeavored to reconcile her various roles. Yet the habit of Rosa Bonheur, with the remark, "She painted herself." 8She
work sustained her: "I think that no matter how much affec- does not refer to Bonheur at all and in a letter to Cecilia
tion a woman has for her husband, it is not easy for her to Beaux, who also was associated with Philadelphia and the
break with a life of work . . ." (23 April 1869), and much Pennsylvania Academy, she is brusque and does not invoke
later, "Dear friend, you still have a lot to learn; the love of art, their mutual background.9 Most of the correspondence
as you call it, or simply the love, the habit of any work, does postdates the period of her greatest productivity and
not diminish with the years. It is this that reconciles us to our demonstrates that Cassatt adhered firmly to the principles
wrinkles and white hair" (Summer 1881). of the Independents with whom she had first exhibited, long
after the others had relaxed their positions: "Liberty is the
Mary Cassatt provides an American parallel to Berthe
first good in this world and to escape the tyranny of a jury is
Morisot. She too came from a good middle-class family in
worth fighting for, surely no profession is so enslaved as
which a grudging toleration of her artistic ambitions was
ours.. . . I will say though that if awards are given it is more
tempered by the desire to have her marry well. An early trip
sensible and practical to give them in money than in medals
to Europe with her family and her mother's educational
and to young and struggling artists such help would often be
guidance seem to have shaped Cassatt's tastes; after
welcome, and personally I should feel wicked in depriving
attending the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from
any one of such help . ." (2 March 1904). She also tried to
1861-65, she was determined to return to Paris to continue
use her influence to encourage American collectors to
her art studies, a decision gradually accepted by her
purchase "some really fine old Masters to create a standard,"
parents.6 They eventually settled in Paris as well, and so
but said with a sigh and some sarcasm: "In this hope I was
Mary Cassatt, although she never married, was still
naturally disappointed" (29 August 1904). She could be
encumbered with the demands and intrigues of family life,
optimistic about the future in the abstract even when she
and managed for her aging and ailing parents who became
could not always find anything concrete to justify her hopes.
dependent upon her strength and practical abilities.
Early in her career she wrote that "I always have a hope that
Cassatt's letters are preserved only fragmentarily and at some future time I shall see New York the artist's ground.
unfortunately are imbedded within lengthy expositions ofI think you will create an American school" (10 March 1878).
her biography. It is ironic that her intense desire for privacy,
a need which drove her to destroy her letters from Degas, Cecilia Beaux also began life within the constriction of
seems to have provoked the attention of writers given to the Victorian home but emancipated herself almost entirely
gratuitous speculation.7 Those letters which remain have the from her family as she became more and more successful as
tone of business letters and tell remarkably little about how a society portraitist. Her memoirs, Background with
Cassatt saw the world while they nonetheless reveal a wealth Figures, are highly stylized, written in an elevated and
about her proper, decisive character. Once accustomed to judicious tone and touch only indirectly on the "fundamental
the tone of the letters and thus the writer, the reader is questions" of her life. The exaggerated sentiment and
hardly astonished that Cassatt rarely touches upon moralizing selection of impressions from early childhood
and later reflect more the conventions of the
questions such as her philosophy of art or her own role as an
artist. In an early letter to her sister-in-law she describes
autobiographical genre and the writer's social strat
herself as "roughing it most artistically" and displays her the woman herself. 10 Allusions to romance and offers of
gift for condescension as she comments: ". . . for although marriage, for example, are passed over in a sentence or two

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 Woman's Art Journal 3

and
andafter
afterthat
that
Beaux
Beaux
never never
comments
comments
upon the reasons
upon the
for in
reasons forYork, and England; when accidentally
Paris, New
or
orthe
thelong-term
long-term
implications
implications
of her decision
of hertodecision
remain to remain
revealing her own prejudices, as in the anecdote of a
single;
single; her
hermother
mother
died in
died
childbirth
in childbirth
and her adored
and her
fatheradored father
reception where she was not immediately recognized by her
disappears
disappears almost
almost
entirely
entirely
after being
afterintroduced
being introduced
to clarify host,tothe
clarify
American Ambassador: ". .. and we met the polite
the
thefamily
family genealogy.
genealogy.
Indeed,Indeed,
Beaux has
Beaux
written
has a life in smile
of written of dealt
a lifeoutin
to nice-looking American ladies he did not
which
which the
thehuman
humanelement
element
is curiously
is curiously
reduced, replaced-
reduced, replaced-
recognize, and knew what it was to join the ranks of the near
but
butonly
only unsatisfactorily-with
unsatisfactorily-with
flights of
flights
"philosophizing"superfluous" (240). Such snobbery may alienate the reader
of "philosophizing"
and
andlots
lotsof of
exclamation
exclamation
points.points.
Perhaps her
Perhaps
best passageson occasion,
her best but Cecilia Beaux could also be sensitive,
passages
contain
contain descriptions
descriptions
of interiors.
of interiors.
A sensitivity
A sensitivity particularly
to interior to the demands of her painting: "For one who
to interior
spaces,
spaces, textures,
textures,
fabrics,
fabrics,
and theand
ponderousness
the ponderousness
typical of typical
attempts of a metier for which his whole reserve of
to pursue
upper-class
upper-class furnishings
furnishings
is common
is common
to both her
to writing and time,
both her strength,
writing and and opportunity seems insufficient, there is a
her
herelegant
elegant portraits;
portraits;
it is such
it is
ansuch
eye for
anthe
eyeeffect
for ofthe effect
continual ofbetween what may be called 'ventilation'
contest
settings
settings that
that
seems seems
to have
tosuggested
have suggested
the memoir's
thetitle.
memoir's title. masquerading as the former" (154).
and interruption,
Moreover,
Moreover, Cecilia
Cecilia
BeauxBeaux
provides
provides
in her ownin words
her own
the words the
Three eldest children whose lives were firmly shaped by
progress
progress in in
herher
awareness
awareness
of her vocation
of her as vocation
an artist as
in an artist in
America.
America. While
While
she acquired
she acquired
competency
competency
in her craft,
inshea strong
her craft, fathershehave left us autograph work: Elizabeth
Vigee-Lebrun, Rosa Bonheur, and Barbara Leigh Smith
also
alsowaswasinculcated
inculcatedwith with
the idea
the
of the
idea"inspired
of theartistic
"inspired artistic
genius,"
genius," a figure
a figurewhichwhich
she recognized
she recognized those (Bodichon).
neither in neither in those Elizabeth Vigee was the favorite of her father, a
around her nor in herself. This myth caused her some pastellist. It was he who gave her her first lessons after she
anguish, as is evident when she describes her venture into left the convent school where she says she had drawn
commercial portrait painting on china, a venture in which "incessantly and everywhere," in her books, in the sand, and
she was financially successful: "Without knowing why, I am even on dormitory walls.13 Louis Vigee recognized this
glad to say that I greatly despised these productions.... precocity in one of the seven-year-old's drawings,
This was the lowest depth I ever reached in commercial art exclaiming: "You will be a painter, my child, if ever there
.. I remember it with gloom and record it with shame" was one!" (2). By the same token, Raymond Bonheur was a
(85), even though she remarks that the portraits brought painter and drawing-master whose example inspired not
only his eldest daughter Rosa but also her other siblings. 14
great pleasure to grateful customers. 11
He recalled that at the age of two Rosa asked him to look at a
More admirable are her words describing the gradual scribble on the wall which she insisted was a picture. 15Rosa
realization that she had found her vocation, for they reveal a herself describes a later story in which she was being kept by
woman finding her center: ". . . the unbroken morning friends while her father was off to lessons and was given
hours, the companionship, and, of course, the model, static, some coloring work on china plates: "When I think of the
silent, separated ... all this was the farther side of a very pence I earned in this work, it makes my heart beat more
sharp corner I had turned, into a new world, which was to be quickly, for it was the first money I ever made in art, such as
continuously mine" (88). Her account of the painstaking, it was" (11). Efforts to discourage this artistic bent failed, so
makeshift process of realizing the vision that became her when the other children were in school, Rosa, who herself
first successful painting, Derniers jours d'enfance, is had no interest in schooling, became her father's pupil.
remarkable. The acclaim for the work when it was exhibited Barbara Leigh Smith inherited a zest for political activism
in Paris convinced her in 1888 to sail for Europe.12 She from her father, Benjamin Smith, a radical politician and
enrolled in one of Julian's ateliers and was disappointed in reformer; nothing is known of her mother, who never
the uninspired, businesslike attitude of students and married Benjamin Smith but bore five children, except that
teachers alike, although occasionally a bit of artistic life she was a milliner. Barbara continued her work as painter of
sufficiently romantic to be recognized as Art did present watercolors after having studied with Corot and William
itself; she records of Tony Robert-Fleury, a visiting artist to Henry Huntl6 and, while her diary does not cover her
the studio, that his "eyes . . . smouldered with burnt-out formative years, her letters do reveal that the family
fires" (118). Yet it was the routine - ordinary, accepted and nurtured the tireless, curious spirit that
uninterrupted - which evoked a profound calm in the artist animated her broad range of interests.
as she worked in her own studio "with space for deliberation.
... It was all between the fascinating object and myself. Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun's first 12 "letters" compose
. . . Time enough ahead for Life, for friends, lovers, andperhaps all the most interesting portion of her Souvenirs, for
other complications" (124-25). here she recalls her youth, training, early success, and life
with the French aristocracy until her flight from Paris at
The memoirs reveal that Beaux preferred Old Mastersthe to outbreak of the Revolution. Her writing is self-conscious
the contemporary Impressionists and Symbolists, that with but with a note of humor and sometimes understatement.
her upper-middle-class background she equated the The reader has the impression that the artful style
average artist with the poor ("while the ordinary we always corresponds to the personality of this Painter to the Queen,
have with us" 176), and that her career as a society that the young, celebrated portraitist is being only
portraitist developed almost without plan (the artist disarmingly frank as when, for example, she describes
claiming to have selected her subjects because she thought herself as an ugly adolescent but a rival to her painting
they would be "nice to do"). She is at her best when teacher at the age of 14, "because, I had forgotten to tell you,
discussing technical matters such as the influence of a that I had undergone a metamorphosis and that I had
period spent working in pastel; when describing her studios become pretty" (12). Her father's influence continued to be

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4 Woman's Art Journal

felt
feltlong
long
after after
his death,
his
anddeath,
the artistand
recounts
thesimilar
artist recounts
Smith,similar
Smith, for
for
their
their
letters
letters
indicate
indicate
they were
theykindred
werespirits,
kindred spirits,
episodes
episodes of absent-mindedness
of absent-mindedness
in both father and
in daughter
both father and daughter
although
although Bonheur
Bonheur had the
hadconviction
the conviction
of her talent
of her
and talent
the and the
when
when absorbed
absorbed
in their in
work.
their
17 Herwork.
success brought
17 Her hersuccess will
brought
will totoshut
shutouther
out
all other
all other
distractions
distractions
while Smith
while
feltSmith
equally felt equally
sizable
sizable wealth,
wealth,
but an avaricious
but anstepfather
avaricious
and then
stepfather
a and
the thenofaher
thedemands
demands of her
art, her
art,political
her political
activism,activism,
and her and her
profligate
profligate husband
husband
laid claim to
laid
most
claim
of her to
money
most
before
of her money before
feminism.
feminism. SheShe
is perhaps
is perhaps
best known
best known
as one ofas
the
one
founders
of the founders
the Revolution. of
of Girton,
Girton,England's
England'sfirst first
collegecollege
for women
forand
women
site ofand site of
Virginia
Virginia Woolf's
Woolf'sessay,
essay,
A RoomA Room
of One'sof
Own,
One's
butOwn,
Barbarabut Barbara
Vigee-Lebrun discusses few of her domestic Smith
Smithwas was
a great
a greatforceforce
in theinEnglish
the English
Woman's Woman's
Rights Rights
arrangements, however, except as they reflect or impinge
Movement
Movement in in
other
other
ways,ways,
lending
lending
her pen,her
her pen,
moneyher
(hermoney (her
upon her activity as a painter. For example, she claims that
father
fathersettled
settled
a generous
a generous
annualannual
income income
on her inon1848),
herand
in 1848), and
she had no time to prepare for the birth of her child in her
1780;
her energies
energiesto such
to such
causescauses
as suffrage,
as suffrage,
opportunityopportunity
for for
"The day of my daughter's birth, I did not leave my atelier at andand
education
education professions,
professions,
and lawand
reform.
law reform.
Less well known
Less well known
all, and I worked on my Venus binding the Wings of Cupid inasas
today
today anan
artist,
artist,
her watercolors
her watercolors
were critically
were critically
approved approved
the intervals between pains" (38-9), until a friend came by
upon
byherhercontemporaries,
contemporaries,amongamong
them Ruskin
themand Ruskin
Dante and Dante
the situation and sent for a midwife. While the artist states
Gabriel
GabrielRossetti.
Rossetti.
The The
uniqueunique
qualityquality
of her writing
of herderives
writing derives
that this joyous event overshadowed all her professional in
in large
largepart
part
from
from
this this
rangerange
of interests,
of interests,
but she wasbut
alsoshe
a was also a
successes, she neither names her daughter nor mentions her witty
wittyand and
sharp
sharp
observer
observer
of human
of human
nature. On
nature.
her wedding
On her wedding
again until they leave Paris together in 1789. Such trip
triptotothe
the
United
United
States,
States,
covered covered
in the epistolary
in the epistolary
"diary," "diary,"
treatment contrasts with the detailed descriptions of othershe
shefound
foundherself
herself
forced
forced
to taketouptake
the cause
up the
of women
cause of
andwomen and
occasions, such as when she received public praise or blacks against a whole table of fellow-travelers on a
attended festive dinners or had important court figures as Mississippi riverboat. She reflected afterwards: "There is
sitters. The egotism is continuously apparent but so is a sense evidently a feeling that Abolition and Woman's Rights are
of humor; Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun had a sweetness and a supported by the same people and same arguments, and that
durability that seem to have enabled her to move with both are allied to atheism - and all these slave owners are
confidence in the highest French circles and to recall what very religious people.... Slavery is a greater injustice, but
she observed in piquant detail. it is allied to the injustice to women so closely that I cannot
Rosa Bonheur's life was of quite another sort. She did not see one without thinking of the other and feeling how soon
marry but was supported emotionally and in practical slavery would b/e destroyed if right opinions were
matters by a dear companion, Nathalie Micas, who freed the entertained upon the other question" (11 December 1857).
artist from the most immediate domestic concerns in order
The artist and her husband, "the doctor," Eugene
that she could attend to her painting, her animals, and her
Bodichon, traveled primarily in the American South. Like
voluminous correspondence. From the multitude of letters
many English visitors, they were intrigued and at the same
preserved, with their boisterous, forthright style, the reader
time repelled by the institution of slavery. 18 She described
may gain a vivid impression of this active and somewhat
with an artist's eye the peculiarly southern scenery and the
earthy woman who was also the darling of the Empress
equally peculiar inhabitants: plantation owners, New
Eugenie, the Salons, and the Legion of Honor. The letters
Orleans Creoles, slaves at auction, blacks in their churches,
reveal little about her art; rather, they chronicle a vigorous
and the "mixed" mulattoes and octoroons. She also
life of sketching excursions, encounters with famous people,
discovered that to be an artist and a woman working m
awards, and skirmishes with recalcitrant animal-models.
that she herself became an object of curiosity in the S
When Bonheur does mention her work, it is usually with
"The people in this house would lend me any amo
some irony and self-mockery: "I have not done much yet in
flower garden bonnets if I would but go out in them.
the artistic line; but I have got some inspirations that are up
so like the Americans - they are generous and kind bu
to the knocker, I am going to visit Roland's Breach and there
I will soar above all low ambitions. I shall conceive there not let you go your own way in the world" (21 January
Like Rosa Bonheur, Barbara Leigh Smith dressed
some grand and noble ideas, and invoke the grand Roland to
practically for work with leather boots, large hat, glasses,
grant me an artistic power worthy of his own arm and
and walking stick, and she continues: "I never saw such
courage. There! How's that to end with?" (12 September
astonishment as is depicted on the faces of the populace when
1855). The very absence of reference to the essentials of her
I return from a sketching excursion." Like Elizabeth Vig6e-
art suggests that Bonheur was remarkably successful at
Lebrun's memoirs, this artist's journal derives a special
maintaining the perspective and distance needed to continue
interest from its pre-war context and from the many
work through most distractions. When discouraged, she
prominent figures whom she met during the journey. She
would complain vehemently but with the exaggeration that
was in touch with figures in the Woman's Rights,
signaled her ever-present humor: "I have annoyances of an
Abolitionist, and Unitarian movements, 19 and wrote after
artistic character. You know yourself what it is to be
an introduction to Lucretia Mott: ". . . it is so rare to see rich
tempted to kick a hole through the canvas, just as I am now,
people really given to reform ideas. When I see a rich woman
in order to give more depth to my landscape. What a
like Lucretia Mott advocating a cause which is yet in the
profession! How much better I should like to charge a body of
rotten-egg stage (I mean its advocates are apt to have rotten
men, sabre in hand, and so allay my rage, instead of having
eggs and dirtier words thrown at them), I think there is some
to fret and fume before a bit of canvas . ." (25 February
hope of getting the rich through the eye of the needle into
1870).
heaven" (20 April 1858). Unlike Vig6e-Lebrun, the
One wishes that Rosa Bonheur had met Barbara LeighEnglishwoman's unusual life-style was supported by her

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 Woman's Art Journal 5

similarly unconventional husband: "Doctor being the although she characteristically refused to place the
housekeeper, because, you see, his work is head work and it is responsibility where it belonged: "Without a doubt, I am not
good for him to have a little marketing and house affairs to so fortunate as Breslau, who lives in a small artistic circle
attend to, and my work is hard head work and hard hand where each word, each step offers something to study....
work too, and I can be at it all day long except when I take People make me waste time, certainly; evenings, for
walks for exercise" (21 December 1857). She seldom example, which Breslau uses to draw, to compose - me, I am
discusses her work but refers to working regularly, and distracted and tossed about aimlessly by the people who
toward the end of the journey she could write with pleasure surround me. The milieu, that's half of talent while one is a
from Washington: "My Southern sketches are going to be student .. ."(27 November 1882). Competition, particularly
exhibited here at an art gallery. Fourteen of mine are with her rival, the Swiss Louise Breslau, was to remain the
exhibiting at Philadelphia, Boston, etc. in the English Ex." primary goad to achievement for Marie Bashkirtseff ("If I
(18 March 1858). In general, however, she had a rather low receive a mention this year [in the Salon], I will have
estimation of the level of art appreciation in the United progressed more quickly than Breslau, who, before going to
States: "There is very little knowledge of art in America, Julian's, had already worked seriously. Well." 22 April
very little love of any art. . ." (13 February 1858). 1883), although this overlay a fundamental preoccupation,
at times a real panic, about the passage of time. 22This fear of
By contrast to Barbara Smith's amiability, Marie
losing time ("Oh, when I think that one only lives once and
Bashkirtseff comes across in her letters and celebrated
that each minute brings us closer to death, I go crazy," 23
journal as an extremely difficult, headstrong young woman
May 1877) is poignant in view of her premature death from
whose naivete corresponds to her sizable ego. A fair opinion
consumption, but it was also a concomitant to the fame that
of the artist is impeded by the sorry state of the published
she so desperately sought: "Ah, if I had only begun three
editions of the journals. 20 But one can still learn much from
years ago, only three years ago, that's not much, I would be
them about the formation of an artistic temperament in
well-known by now!" [15 December 1877]; "At twenty-two I
adolescence, for Marie Bashkirtseff died too young to have
will be either famous or dead," 13 April 1878). The
suppressed the less attractive passages of her journal that
Bashkirtseff diaries are compelling because they provide a
she might have found too embarassing to let stand in her
unique portrayal of an indomitable will, a portrayal in
maturity. Her world was in large part the product of her
which many women may recognize moments from their own
imagination, 21 for reality was full of disappointments. She
youth.
dominated her Russian emigre family who lived in Nice and
Paris, made the important decisions about where to live and The tremendously moving diary, letters, and
whom to visit, and became irrational and abusive when reminiscences of Ktithe Kollwitz reveal a tragic yet warmly
circumstances - most often lack of money and/or social human artist who seems larger than life, the stuff of which
position - prevented the realization of her ambitions. Shemyths, or at least role-models, are made.23 She differs from
was usually contemptuous of her parents and anyone elsethe others in several respects: while her father, Karl
whom she found she could rule. Her tremendous energy and Schmidt, saw to her education as an artist and provided an
will were directed finally toward painting after a period of example for her social activism, her mother, Kithe Rupp
"trying on" various roles which she assumed in daily life as Schmidt, was the parent with whom she most identified,
well as in the pages of the journal. While this volatility is not first unconsciously and later with increasing awareness. On
extraordinary in a girl of her age, the volume and frankness her own 49th birthday, July 8, 1916, the artist writes with
of her writing is, for each entry reflects the mood of thethe wonder and ambivalence that many women feel toward
moment, and those moods were vehement and continuallytheir mothers as they themselves reach middle age: "When I
changing, so that violent contradictions appear on a singleam here with Mother, I often feel like her. I stand with my
page. hands behind my back looking out the window and
humming to myself like her. Suppose for me too all that
Art replaced romantic love as her intended vehicle to
there was left of life was to look on?" Kollwitz's first success
celebrity: "I wish to become famous! I will be" (13 April
with her work came only after she had her two children, in
1878); "Decidedly I will be a great artist" (25 May 1878). Like
Cecilia Beaux and Kathe Kollwitz, Bashkirtseff entered one contrast to the career-first-children-later pattern of Vigee-
Lebrun and Berthe Morisot. The acclaim with which "The
of Julian's ateliers, and gradually her hysterical concern for
Revolt of the Weavers" (Ein Weberaufstand) was received in
the opinion of others on the beauty and originality of her
1898-99 came almost as a surprise: "But from then on, at one
person was transformed into a sincere interest in her work,
blow, I was counted among the foremost artists of the
but her spirit was inevitably competitive and often petty:
country," she recalls in "In Retrospect" (43).
"'Listen,' Julian tells me in a whisper, 'expect to be hated
here, for I have never seen such progress as yours in five Kathe Kollwitz differs, too, from the other artists
months"' (23 March 1878). She records at length the considered here in that she writes continually of the real
compliments her work provokes and takes particular issues in her work. The pervasive intensity ("all these prints
delight when she incurs the jealousy of others in the atelier. are a distillation of my life. I have never done any work cold
She had no friends, a fact of which she could not help being ... I have always worked with my blood, so to speak," 16
aware and which accounts perhaps for the intensity and April 1917) of her convictions gave her life a coherence, an
volume of her journal entries. While she chose to emphasize integrity that is not apparent in other lives. "Unquestionably
her distinction from the other students, taking it as a sign of my work at this time . .. was in the direction of socialism.
her social and artistic superiority; there was also a time But my real motives for choosing my subjects almost
when she realized that her choices did not come without cost, exclusively from the life of the workers was that only such

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6 Woman's Art Journal

subjects
subjects gave
gave
me me
in a simple
in a simple
and unqualified
and unqualified
way what I way
felt what
lettersI may
feltbe better vehicles of expression: they are usually
to
to bebebeautiful..
beautiful..
. . Unsolved
. . Unsolved
problems
problems
such as prostitution
such as prostitution
the immediate response to an external situation, are
and unemployment grieved and tormented me, and intended for persons known to the writer, and need not be
contributed to my feeling that I must keep on with my written with an eye to posterity. It is thus probably no
studies of the lower classes. And portraying them again and accident that most of the women artists have left us
again opened a safety valve for me; it made life bearable" examples of this type of literary effort. Letters reveal mo
("In Retrospect," 43). of daily life and less self-consciousness. Yet insofar as they
are intended for a correspondent, letters are not whol
The unity of life and art in Kathe Kollwitz is particularly
private and thus may still conceal. Rosa Bonheur clear
poighant as one reads her words after the death of her
liked to write, finding in her letters release from the solitu
younger son in battle in 1914. She took as her theme Goethe's
she imposed on herself while working, while Mary Cass
line "Seed for the planting shall not be ground," 24and used it
apparently did not enjoy writing. Cassatt permits us to see
repeatedly-to comfort herself in her journal, to close a public
little of the "fundamental questions" which she had t
letter of 1918 which protested a proposal for a last draft of
answer in her life and work, so that we may surmise that h
young Germans, and as the title of the 1942 lithograph of a
need for privacy was offended by this semipublic genr
mother protecting her children used to protest the
Barbara Leigh Smith's letters, lengthy and regular, are
resumption of recruiting, this time for the Wehrmacht. 25In
written in journal style and attest to her habit of recordin
a way, personal and national tragedy gave her art a clear
and reflecting in order to enhance her understanding.
focus for the rest of her life. She worked for almost 20 years
on a monument - a grieving mother and father in stone - The journal is above all the confessional genre, the mean
for the cemetery in Belgium where her son had been for the most personal written expression. Kathe Kollw
buried. 26This task involved her in large-scale sculpture for and Marie Bashkirtseff leave us antithetical works: age and
the first time, and the anguish of its genesis paralleled her youth, persevering courage and volatile impatience, on
growing awareness of the limitations that age had begun to career slowly ripening and reaching a rich maturity and th
place on her ability to work. Moreover, in this piece and in other not quite fully embraced before being cut off. Kollwi
her other creations that took as their theme mothers, wrote in a terse and apparently effortless style and mu
children, and death, the social activism and intellect of her have realized that the act of putting pen to paper was an a
father are united to the intuitive, silent power of her mother;of faith to future generations. Yet she writes no less frankl
in this work the mother is Everywoman with the face ofwith no image with 'which to try to affect us. Bashkirtsef
Kithe Kollwitz. wrote effusively and at tremendous length, continuou
glancing out, as it were, at her reader to check the effect. B
she recorded what even she must have known were her most
unattractive features with total candor and even some irony,
an irony which suggests some disbelief in the image into
If works of art speak for themselves, why do artists write
which she sought to shape her recorded self. Both writers, as
and what is to be gained by reading them? Autobiography,
women and as artists, have some quality of the universal.
the most formal of the genres, is full of convention, so that we
may arrive at the essence only by some indirection and Whether there are any images, types, or patterns for the
supplementation; we must guess at the process of selection mythsto of women artists is a premature question, for there
which the writer has subjected her material, we must listen are other journals, other letters which have not yet been
to tone as well as to content, and we must realize that at the studied or published and probably others which have yet to
end of a career the writer is shaping her own legend. be uncovered in libraries and attics. 29Moreover, it is possible
Legendary elements and a tendency to loftiness occur in both that the "myth of the artist" is a particularly masculine
memoirs discussed, and others have noted the persistence in construct for which the woman artist, in her multiplicity of
artistic biography of certain patterns, images, and types. roles and tasks, has no need to indulge. In any case, for the
Such patterns have provided not only the models for moment such questions have a faint ring of the theorizing
biography but also the inspiration for life-styles, that Virginia Woolf condemned. It is enough to be able to
particularly from the Renaissance onward.27Yet none of learn from the artist in her own words "how much money
these is suited for women. Perhaps this is why, after reading
and how many rooms," to have a glimpse through time of our
Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun's Souvenirs or Cecilia Beaux's essential quandaries. 0
Background with Figures, one still has unanswered
questions and no confidence of having a sound enough
acquaintance with the writer to begin to guess at the
answers. How much money and how many rooms? 1. Denis Rouart, The Correspondence of Berthe Morisot (London: Lund
Humphries, 1957), 9; all quotations from Berthe Morisot's letters are to be
found in this edition.
What is more, to paraphrase Virginia Woolf again, the
2. Ernst Kris and Otto Kurz, Legend, Myth and Magic in the Image of the
availability of leisure time to focus on the health of one's
Artist: An Historical Experiment (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University
fame 28is exceptional among the artists considered. Except Press, 1979), ch. 2 and especially 25ff. Artists of whom such an auspicious
for Marie Bashkirtseff, who was more than frank about her beginning is recounted includes Giotto, Beccafumi, Sansovino, Andrea
desire for celebrity, none of the artists leaves the impression del Castagno (all by Vasari), as well as Zurbaran and Goya.
that she gave the state of her public image much thought; 3. Quoted in Rouart, 14.
few had the time for such concerns. The woman artist does 4. As in a letter to Edma in 1871 and several others, quoted in Rouart, 72-3.
not have the luxury of having but a single role to play. So 5. Recorded in the letter from Mme. Morisot to Edma cited in n.4; Rouart, 72.

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 Woman's Art Journal 7

6.
6. Her
Herfather's
father's
initial
initial
opposition
opposition
has been has
exaggerated
been exaggerated
in some accounts, Bashkirtseff
Bashkirtseff
in some (Paris:
(Paris:Bibliotheque
accounts, Bibliotheque Charpentier,
Charpentier, 1914),
1914),
I-II; I-II;
the volume
the volume
of of
according
according to Nancy
to Nancy Hale, Hale,
Mary Cassatt
Mary (Garden
CassattCity,
(Garden
N.Y.: Doubleday
City, N.Y.:the
the Doubleday
Lettres
Lettreswaswaspublished
published simultaneously
simultaneously by by
the the
same samehouse.
house.
TheseThese
1975),
1975), 31-2,
31-2,
whilewhile
her older
her brother
older brother
Alec had actually
Alec had begun
actually
to plan appear
begun
appear toto
to be plan
bebased
basedupon
upon the
the
1887
1887Theuriet
Theuriet andand
18911891
Coppee Coppee
editions,
editions,
for
forsuch
suchan an
eventuality
eventuality
alreadyalready
in 1860; see
in Frederick
1860; seeA.Frederick
Sweet, Miss A.respectively.
Sweet, Miss
respectively. All
Allreferences
references to to
thethe
journals
journals
are are
mademade
by date
by date
(within
(within
Mary
MaryCassatt,
Cassatt,Impressionist
Impressionist
from Pennsylvania
from Pennsylvania
(Norman, Okla.:
(Norman, Okla.:while
parentheses),
parentheses), whilethe
thetranslations
translationsareare
thisthis
author's.
author's.
University
University of Oklahoma
of Oklahoma Press, 1966),
Press, 14.1966), 14. 21.
21. The
The subtitle
subtitleofofthe
theMoore
Moore book,
book,TheThe
Daydream
Daydream LoveLove
Affair Affair
of Marie
of Marie
7.
7. The
The Hale
Hale
bookbook
is particularly
is particularly
offensiveoffensive
in this regard.
in this
Letters
regard.
quoted in
Letters quoted
Bashkirtseff,
Bashkirtseff, in this
reflects
reflects this
fact;
fact;
based
based
upon
uponthethe
first
first
volume
volume
only only
of the
of the
this essay are taken from Sweet, where their openings are clearly artist's
artist's multi-volume
multi-volumedaybook,
daybook, thethe
work
workcenters
centers
on aon
totally
a totally
invented
invented
signaled and a list of all correspondence provided as an appendix to the romance
romance with
withthetheEnglish
English
Duke
Dukeof of
Hamilton,
Hamilton,
whomwhomMarie
Marie
nevernever
met. met.
biography (218-21). For the most recent works on Mary Cassatt, see 22.
22. This
This urgency
urgencymanifests
manifestsitself
itself
early
early
in the
in the
artist's
artist's
life life
as a horror
as a horror
of aging
of aging
Nancy Mowll Mathews's review in WAJ (Spring/Summer 1981), 57-60. and
and an
an impatience
impatiencewith
with
lost
lost
time.
time.
It led
It led
bothboth
herher
and and
subsequently
subsequently
her her
8. This episode is recounted in a letter of 1911 by Mildred Whitney Stillman, mother,
mother, when
whenediting
editingthe
thejournals,
journals,
to to
alter
alter
certain
certain
entries
entries
and dates
and dates
to to
in Sweet, 185. suggest
suggest that
thatMarie
MarieBashkirtseff
Bashkirtseff waswas
twotwo
years
years
younger
younger
thanthan
her actual
her actual
9. Of October 19, 1915, in Sweet, 196-97. age.

10. Cecilia Beaux, Background with Figures (Boston/New York: Houghton- 23. Kathe Kollwitz, The Diary and Letters of Kathe Kollwitz, ed. Hans
Mifflin, 1930); passages quoted from this memoir are followed in Kollwitz (Chicago: Regnery, 1955), from which all quotation are taken
parentheses by the corresponding page number(s). and cited by date or page number within parentheses. There are various
11. For the full account of this early venture, see Beaux, 84-5. This typical editions of the autograph work of Kathe Kollwitz, many excerpts of which
form the core of Martha Kearns's Kathe Kollwitz: Woman and Artist (Old
attitude about "lesser arts" persisted through her career (see also 162-63).
Westbury, N.Y.: Feminist Press, 1976), which also provides an excellent
12. The memoirs contain no dates, so one is forced to consult other works such
bibliography, 233-37. In addition to the letters and journals, Diary and
as catalogues for orientation.
Letters includes several memoirs by the artist ("Early Years" and "In
13. Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Souvenirs, I-II (Paris, 1859). Quotations from Retrospect, 1941") and one by her granddaughter Jutta ("The Last Days").
them are followed in the text by page references within parentheses; 24. "Saatfruchte sollen nicht vermahlen werden," from the seventh book of
translations by this writer. (The memoirs were translated by Gerald Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, 1795-6.
Shelley, London, 1926. Ed.) The phenomenon of the young artist whose
25. Kaethe Kollwitz: Zeichnung, Graphik, Plastik. Museum Villa Stuck.
energies and talents can hardly be contained, who scribbles in the
(Munich, 1977), fig. 123.
margins of schoolbooks, on walls, and in the dirt, is one which appears as a
standard attribute in artistic biography (see Kris and Kurz, 26-32). One is 26. Diary and Letters, figs. 30 and 31.
likely to encounter such conventional anecdotes more frequently in 27. See, for example, Rudolf and Margot Wittkower, Born under Saturn
autobiography (as well as biography) than in the other autograph genres, (New York: Norton, 1963), which lists and elaborates the various types
where tales of youthful creative expression are more individualized. of "Character and Conduct of Artists" (exclusively male), and the more
14. Her brothers Isidore and Auguste and half-brother Germain all became recent update of the same general legends by Johannes A. Gaertner,
professional artists, while her sister Juliette continued to do animal "Myth and Pattern in the Lives of Artists," Art Journal, XXXI (1970),
studies after her marriage to the sculptor Hippolyte Peyrol. 27-30. It should be noted here that the Wittkowers do mention one woman
in their section entitled "Agostino Tassi, Seducer of Artemesia
15. Theodore Stanton, ed., Reminiscences of Rosa Bonheur (New York, 1910;
Gentileschi," where the latter is characterized as a "lascivious and
Hacker Art Books reissue, 1976); the episodes referred to are taken from
precocious girl" (164). Gaertner actually names eight women artists in his
this standard collection of letters and memoirs, for which page numbers
and dates are noted in parentheses. survey (not limited to the visual arts), but seems to be affected by what we
may call the Sylvia Plath syndrome: three artists are listed under the
16. Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon, An American Diary 1857-8, Joseph W.
heading of the "artist as suicide" (Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Siddal,
Reed, Jr., ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972), ch. II, "Barbara
Virginia Woolf), one as a "great artist who died young" (Paula Modersohn-
Leigh Smith Bodichon, 1827-1891," by Reed, 43. All quotations from the
Becker), and another as the "artist tragically afflicted by disease"
diary derive from this edition, for which dates follow citations in
(Elizabeth Barrett Browning). Emily Dickinson is the token recluse,
parentheses. The present writer follows the artist's own usage in Sappho the token example of deviate behavior, and Sarah Bernhardt
referring to herself by her birth name only, Barbara Leigh Smith.
stands alone among male companions as "darling of the gods."
17. Such similarity of anecdotes between the lives of an established artist and
28. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (New York: Harcourt,
a younger one eager for acceptance is a typical example of how legend Brace & World, 1929), 52.
may define the "image of the artist." See the Souvenirs, I, 3-4 and 29-30;
29. Just by way of example, see the recent publication by Diane Radycki, The
see also Jean Owens Schaefer, "The Souvenirs of Elizabeth Vigee-
Lebrun," International Journal of Woman's Studies (January/February, Letters and Journals of Paula Modersohn-Becker (New York: 1980),
1981), 35-49. reviewed by Ellen C. Oppler, p. 54. Of the unpublished works, there are
Gwen John's letters in the National Library in Wales (cf. Joan Kinnaer,
18. For the proper context of the Bodichons' journey, Reed's Chapter I, "The
The Artist by Himself [sic]: Self-Portrait Drawings from Youth to Old
English Visitors, from Dickens to Trollope, 1841-1861," provides Age (New York, 1968), in which a 1903 letter from Gwen John to
indispensable background. Ursula Tyrwhitt is quoted in full.
19. See American Diary, 27, where Reed discusses the range of Barbara
Leigh Smith's acquaintances and estimates that about 75% of those she
met in the U.S. are listed in the Dictionary of American Biography. For
further reading on this relatively unknown artist, see Hester Burton,
CHRISTINE HAVICE is Assistant Professor of Medieval Art and
Barbara Bodichon (London, 1949), though this work is as remarkable for
what it omits as for what it includes. Architecture at the University of Kentucky, where she also teaches a
course on Women in the Visual Arts. Her work with women's studies
20. A number of French and English editions of Marie Bashkirtseff's journal
focuses upon imagery, both in medieval art and in contemporary
have appeared, but all have been based upon the expurgated version
supervised by the artist's mother; Doris L. Moore, Marie and the Duke of mass media. She was Corresponding Secretary-Newsletter Editor
H: The Daydream Love Affair of Marie Bashkirtseff (New York, 1966), for the Southeastern Women's Caucus for Art and is a member of the
national Advisory Board of the Women's Caucus for Art, for which
xv-xvii, discusses the problems to which this situation gives rise. Passages
quoted in the present essay are taken from the Journal de Marie she also serves as secretary.

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