Perspective on Art and Architect : Paris on the Potomac

Paris on the Potomac Perspectives on the Art and Architectural History of the United States Capitol Donald R. Kennon, Series Editor Donald R. Kennon, ed., The United States Capitol: Designing and Decorating a National Icon Vivien Green Fryd, Art and Empire: The Politics of Ethnicity in the United States Capitol, 1815–1860 William C. Dickinson, Dean A. Herrin, and Donald R. Kennon, eds., Montgomery C. Meigs and the Building of the Nation’s Capital Donald R. Kennon and Thomas P. Somma, eds., American Pantheon: Sculptural and Artistic Decoration of the United States Capitol Cynthia R. Field, Isabelle Gournay, and Thomas P. Somma, eds., Paris on the Potomac: The French Influence on the Architecture and Art of Washington, D.C. Paris on the Potomac The French Influence on the Architecture and Art of Washington, D.C. Compiled and edited by Cynthia R. Field Isabelle Gournay and Thomas P. Somma published for the U.S. Capitol Historical Society by Ohio University Press athens www.ohio.edu/oupress © 2007 by Ohio University Press Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper ' ™ 1413121110090807 54321 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Paris on the Potomac : the French influence on the architecture and art of Washington, D.C. / compiled and edited by Cynthia R. Field, Isabelle Gournay and Thomas P. Somma. p. cm. — (Perspectives on the art and architectural history of the United States Capitol) Essays originated in a conference held by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in 2002. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1759-1 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8214-1759-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8214-1760-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8214-1760-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Architecture—Washington (D.C.)—French influences—Congresses. 2. City planning— Washington (D.C.)—French influences—Congresses. 3. Public art—Washington (D.C.)— Congresses. 4. Paris (France)—Civilization—Congresses. 5. Washington (D.C.)— Civilization—Congresses. 6. Washington (D.C.)—Buildings, structures, etc.—Congresses. I. Field, Cynthia R. II. Gournay, Isabelle. III. Somma, Thomas P. NA735.W3P37 2007 720.944'09753—dc22 2007011350 In memory of Thomas P. Somma 1949–2007 Contents Preface ix The French Connection in Washington, D.C.: Context and Issues Isabelle Gournay 1 Remembering Paris: The Jefferson-Latrobe Collaboration at the Capitol William C. Allen 36 “The Son by the Side of the Father”: David d’Angers’s Busts of Washington and Lafayette in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Thomas P. Somma 56 Private Homes, Public Lives: Francophilia among Government Officers and the Washington Elite Liana Paredes 77 Interpreting the Influence of Paris on the Planning of Washington, D.C., 1870–1930 Cynthia R. Field 117 Appendix: Architects and the French Connection in Washington, D.C. Isabelle Gournay 139 Contributors 157 Index 159 Preface The essays in this collection, the latest addition to the series on Perspectives on the Art and Architectural History of the United States Capitol, originated in a conference held by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in 2002 at the French Embassy’s La Maison Française. The five essays in this volume explore aspects of the French influences on the artistic and architectural environment of the nation’s capital that continued well after the well-known contributions of Peter Charles L’Enfant, the transplanted French military officer who designed the city’s plan. His vision of a majestic capital on a grand Euro- pean scale remains evident today in the placement of the Capitol, the Mall, and the city’s monumental core. As the articles in this volume attest, French influence, however, extends from the city’s major federal and public buildings to the city’s commer- cial and residential architecture as well. The essays in this volume were compiled by Cynthia R. Field, Isabelle Gournay, and Thomas P. Somma, who together originated the concept for the conference. The series editor thanks these three scholars for their diligence and perseverance in seeing this project to publication. He also extends special thanks to two speakers at the 2002 conference: Michael Paul Driskel, who substituted on short notice to present a paper on L’Enfant, and Kenneth R. Bowling, who discussed his book Peter Charles L’Enfant: Vision, Honor, and Male Friendship in the Early American Republic. Donald R. Kennon ix Paris on the Potomac The French Connection in Washington, D.C. Context and Issues g Isabelle Gournay f an account of the French artistic presence in the United States is Iof little value without multiple references to the nation’s capital, a narrow focus on “Paris on the Potomac” would be equally sterile. This essay takes us on a journey through three periods when French ideas about urbanism, architecture, and public art helped transform many American cities. Each period was triggered by a spurt of artistic activity and creativity in France. The earliest phase spanned from approximately 1790 to 1820, when principles associated with classicism and the Enlightenment helped shape civic and commemorative designs for the young republic. The second period, from roughly 1855 to 1875, related to the popularity of the so-called Second Empire style. The last phase of French influence, which was tied to the popularity of studies at the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts, reached its peak in the first decade of the twentieth century. In Washington, it began in earnest with the competition for the new Corco- ran Gallery of Art in 1892 and lingered until World War II. As its protagonists were more numerous and its imprint most tangible, it is on this third era, and particularly on its architectural legacy, that this essay will focus. Aesthetic trends and principles ruling French art and architecture gained relevance and precedence in the United States when they answered aspirations of political leaders, members of the financial and intellectual elite, as well as architects and artists them- selves. However, at their most successful, French-inspired artifacts from L’Enfant’s 1 2 Isabelle Gournay Fig. 1. A panoramic photograph of Place de la Concorde, circa 1909. (Courtesy Library of Congress.) plan to the brass espagnolettes opening floor-to-ceiling double windows in elegant homes do not simply represent the outcome of abstract historical forces. Instead, in the hands of talented individuals intimately familiar with French art and culture, they were adap- tations to specific and unique requirements. Setting the stage for the Paris on the Potomac story calls for a multifaceted analysis. It requires one to analyze and summarize, for each of the three periods and for both countries, the general climate and particular aspirations presiding over the import of French ideas; to identify institutions, groups, and individuals who were instrumental in bringing these ideas, and to illustrate significant precedents for Washington’s French- inspired landmarks, on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Last but not least, since other capital cities were also affected by French-inspired neoclassicism, Second Empire style, and Beaux-Arts ideals, it is also worth alluding to the international and cosmopolitan dimensions of these movements. Studying French connections in Washington carries three additional advantages. First, we can better comprehend this city’s complex and ambiguous status in terms of artistic leadership. Expectations that the U.S. capital would set national trends for public design, as happened with its plan, were met on many occasions. However, during the entire course of the nineteenth century, Washington was too small a city to exert cultural and artistic dominance. It did not have the educational and professional institutions, the critical mass of local practitioners and private patrons, which New York, Boston, or Philadelphia could rely on. It is only after 1910 that a Washington- style civic art assumed national and even international prominence, but, again, essen- tially in the hands of men hailing from other parts of the country. The second peripheral benefit is not insignificant: exploring how French ideas were differently interpreted in The French Connection in Washington, D.C. 3 civic and residential commissions helps pinpoint similarities and differences between Washington’s public and private spheres. Finally, we can reestablish the significance of artworks and buildings that are no longer extant or are underrated. Around 1800 three sets of circumstances explain the popularity of French planning, art, and design. First was the military cooperation and intellectual kinship between the United States and its rescuer, France. L’Enfant, the brave soldier, and Thomas Jef- ferson, the astute diplomat, best exemplify this unusually close connection between the political and artistic lives of two separate countries. Second was the necessity in which the new republic found itself to seek foreign expertise in order to build its institutions and memorialize its revolution, as it had few well-educated artists and even fewer architects who could claim an academic training. Last was a worldwide exodus of Frenchmen, triggered by the Terror and Napoleonic warfare. In fact, this period was unique in that émigrés, as opposed to men born on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, were the primary conduit for influence. It is fascinating to see how artistic theories established during the ancien régime and ideas related to the Enlightenment had a long-lasting effect on the fine arts in America. Order and hierarchy are key words to understand the artistic movement often referred to as French classicism. Following the lead of Italy, French cities were embellished with public squares centered on freestanding statues. The grandest was the Place de la Concorde originally dedicated to Louis XV (fig. 1). Order was also laid upon hunting forests, urban parks, and private gardens, with tightly controlled effects of close and distant perspective.

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