Sarah Leary Ma Thesis
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© COPYRIGHT by Sarah Leary 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED FLORINE STETTHEIMER’S STUDIO PARTY AND THE ART OF CONVERSATION BY Sarah Leary ABSTRACT Between 1917 and 1919, Florine Stettheimer created a painting inspired by the salons that took place in her New York studio. In Studio Party, numerous artists and creative figures mingle around her studio inspecting her newly unveiled artwork. Scholars have attended to Stettheimer’s “naïve” style and have argued that this work and others look to the subject matter and mis en abyme technique in Diego VeláZqueZ’s Las Meninas (1656), which pictures the artist working on a painting of the King and Queen of Spain, as evidenced in the reflection in the mirror in the background, while court members wait on their daughter to the right of VeláZqueZ. By contrast, my thesis analyzes the work in the context of Stettheimer’s dual roles as artist and salonnière. Drawing on the history of portraiture and early twentieth-century debates about artistic practice, I argue that Studio Party is a group portrait that represents the impact of conversation and, thereby, salons on artistic practice. In this way, Stettheimer championed her role as a salonnière and asserted her status as an artist, but also countered traditional notions of the lone male artist- genius. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project would not have been realiZed had it not been for the support and guidance of the entire American University Art History Department. Generous grants from Carol Bird Ravenal and the College of Arts and Sciences enabled me to conduct critical archival research. I gratefully acknowledge the staff at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University for their help and patience. I am thankful for the professors at American University, especially Dr. Allen and Dr. Pearson, for their exceptional advice and insight throughout the entire thesis process. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Elder for her guidance and feedback on this thesis and my two years at American University. Thank you to my colleagues at the American University Museum for their constant encouragement. I am also thankful for my cohort whose friendship made these two years all the more positive and worthwhile. To Jessica Chien, I am grateful for your friendship and enthusiasm for this project. A special thank you to Olivia Rettstatt as I could not have completed this project without her. I extend my deepest appreciation to my entire family for their support throughout this process. Thank you to my sister Megan, brother Matthew, and sister-in-law Eilish for the much- needed laughter while writing this thesis. My unending gratitude goes to my parents, Shawn and Sheryl Leary. Through every challenging moment, they were there with love and support. I cannot thank them enough for their unwavering confidence in me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS .......................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1 AUTHORSHIP IN THE NEW YORK AVANT-GARDE .......................... 8 CHAPTER 2 REDEFINING THE SPACES OF SOCIABILITY .................................... 20 CHAPTER 3 FAUX NAÏVE: A COLLECTIVE APPROACH TO STYLE ................... 29 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 38 ILLUSTRATIONS ....................................................................................................................... 40 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 42 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Florine Stettheimer, Studio Party, or Soirée, c. 1917-1919, oil on canvas, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University………………..……………………………………………………………... 40 Figure 2: Diego VeláZqueZ, Las Meninas,1656, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid …… 40 Figure 3: Florine Stettheimer, The Cathedrals of Art, 1942, oil on canvas, Gift of Ettie Stettheimer, 1953, The Metropolitan Museum of Art ……………….……………… ... 40 Figure 4: Florine Stettheimer, Family Portrait Number 1, 1915, oil on canvas, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967, Columbia University of the City of New York ….……..…. 40 Figure 5: Stettheimer, Studio Party, detail …………………………………………….…….... 40 Figure 6: Florine Stettheimer, Nude Self-Portrait, ca. 1915-1916, oil on canvas, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967, Columbia University of the City of New York ………….... 40 Figure 7: Édouard Manet, Olympia, 1863, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris …………….... 40 Figure 8: Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, La Maja Desnuda, c. 1797-1800, oil on canvas, Museo del Prado ……………………………………………………………………………….. 40 Figure 9: Carl Sprinchorn, sketch of The Stettheimer Salon (1944), watercolor and ink on paper. Estate of Florine Stettheimer, Joseph Solomon, Executor ……………………….……. 40 Figure 10: Rembrandt van Rijn, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, Known as the ‘Night Watch’, 1642, oil on canvas, On loan from the City of Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum ………………………………………..……….. 40 Figure 11: Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, [post 1950 reproduction of 1917 original], 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift (by exchange) of Mrs. Herbert Cameron Morris, Philadelphia Museum of Art ………………………………………………...….……... 40 Figure 12: Gustave Courbet, L'Atelier du peintre. Allégorie réelle déterminant une phase de sept années de ma vie artistique et morale (The Artist's Studio, a real allegory summing up seven years of my artistic and moral life), 1854-1855, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay .. 40 Figure 13: Henri Matisse, The Red Studio, fall 1911, oil on canvas, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund, The Museum of Modern Art ………………………………………………...….. 40 Figure 14: Peter Juley, interior of Stettheimer’s Beaux Arts Building duplex studio apartment. Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, the Photograph Archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum …………………………………………………………….……...……… 41 v Figure 15: Peter Juley, interior of Stettheimer’s Beaux Arts Building duplex studio apartment. Peter A. Juley & Son Collection, the Photograph Archives of the Smithsonian American Art Museum ………………………………………………………………….……...… 41 Figure 16: Florine Stettheimer, early drawings, late-1880s, Flat Box 269, Florine Stettheimer Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University …………………… 41 Figure 17: Florine Stettheimer, early drawings, late-1880s. Flat Box 269, Florine Stettheimer Papers, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University ……...……………. 41 Figure 18: Florine Stettheimer, Nude Studies, 1890s, oil on canvas on mounted wood, Gift of the Estate of Ettie Stettheimer, 1967, Columbia University of the City of New York ...…. 41 Figure 19: The Quilting Party, 1854-1900, oil on paper, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection ………………………………………………………………………...….... 41 vi INTRODUCTION This thesis analyzes Florine Stettheimer’s Studio Party—sometimes referred to as Soirée (figure 1). The painting depicts a salon set in the artist’s studio, where she exhibited her new paintings to her guests. Stettheimer’s investment in this painting is not the new art she is displaying, but rather the salon’s guests who were also artists and fellow creative individuals in the New York avant-garde community. Stettheimer’s inclusion of figures into the space of the studio, which male artists typically depict as a solitary or even sacred enclave, prompts further analysis. I examine the unique relationship between sociability and artistic practice evidenced in the painting as well as its engagement with the history of portraiture and debates about individuality and skill among avant-garde artists working in the early-twentieth century. Ultimately, I argue that Studio Party is a group portrait that affirms the significance of conversation, salons, and community and, thereby, revises conventional understandings of art making. In the late 1910s, amidst growing political tensions abroad, New York City experienced an influx of Europeans artists and, with it, novel styles, subject matter, and modes of artistic practice. Among the Americans who returned to the United States during this period was Florine Stettheimer. Stettheimer lived abroad for much of the first forty years of her life. During this time, constant travel prevented her from dedicating herself fully to her artistic practice. She painted few large-scale works and instead focused on smaller paintings or works in other media more adaptable to her constant travel. Throughout this time, though, Stettheimer maintained studio space in New York. For example, starting in 1901, she rented a large studio in the Beaux- 1 Arts Building located in midtown Manhattan, decorating it in her unique style.1 When visiting the city, Stettheimer spent most of her time painting in this studio. This space became all the more important after she moved back to New York in 1914. At both Florine's studio and the family’s New York City apartment, the Stettheimers began hosting salons—private social gatherings