Edwin Lord Weeks: An American Artist in North Africa and South Asia Dana M. Garvey A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Susan Casteras, Chair René Bravmann Stuart Lingo Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Art History ©Copyright 2013 Dana M. Garvey University of Washington Abstract Edwin Lord Weeks: An American Artist in North Africa and South Asia Dana M. Garvey Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Susan Casteras Art History Artist, adventurer, travel writer and cultural commentator Edwin Lord Weeks (1849– 1903) was one of America's most celebrated expatriate artists. From the 1870s through the 1890s the Boston native and Paris resident traveled throughout Spain, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Persia and India, venturing well beyond "the Orient" familiar to many of his professional colleagues. His scenes of Egypt and Morocco established early successes in France and America. Travels to India beginning in 1882 inspired a new vision of that region centered on its monumental architecture, colorful street life and vibrant culture. His fresh, bold images of India distinguished Weeks from rival American and European Orientalist painters, established his mature reputation, and brought sustained international acclaim. The dissertation situates Weeks' life and work in a broad socio-political context. For the first time, Weeks' reputation as an intrepid "artist-adventurer" is examined relative to critical and popular reception, the construction of artistic identity, the interdependence of text and image, and the evolving definition of the modern American artist. Original research confirms, clarifies and augments Weeks' biography. New analysis places Weeks at the center of artistic life in 1870s Boston, sheds light on his confusing Moroccan excursions of the 1870s and early 1880s, and brackets his Indian itineraries of the 1880s and 1890s. Weeks' enduring associations with the École des Beaux-Arts, Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme are considered in depth. Despite these academic affiliations, Weeks' consistent emphasis on the effects of sunlight, glare, immediacy and viewer participation indicates that he was thoroughly immersed in contemporary aesthetic concerns. Weeks' major paintings of India, exhibited at the Paris Salon and internationally, emerge as conceptually innovative and transformative when viewed against the long French and British traditions of visualizing India. Moreover, they may be read as richly layered commentary on contemporary topics such as architectural preservation and the geopolitics of Central/South Asia. The cross-cultural circumstances of their production, their integration of French and British visual and textual sources, and the pervasive backdrop of colonialism reveal Edwin Lord Weeks' career as a complex transnational project grounded in an American identity and perspective. Acknowledgements My research for this dissertation was greatly aided by the capable staffs of a number of institutions. For assisting me with special access to Edwin Lord Weeks' paintings and related archival materials, in particular I would like to thank Mylinda Woodward of the University of New Hampshire Library, Lauren Silverson of the Portland Museum of Art, Flavie Durand-Ruel of Durand-Ruel & Cie, Peter Harrington and Robert Emlen of Brown University, and Christine Braun of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. I am fortunate to have undertaken my graduate studies at the University of Washington. The faculty has been most supportive, encouraging and informative. I would like especially to thank Professors Stuart Lingo and René Bravmann for their reading of the manuscript and thoughtful comments. My most profound thanks and gratitude go to my dissertation advisor, Professor Susan Casteras, whose scholarship, depth of knowledge, compassion and reliable wit remain a constant inspiration. I must also thank Professor Emerita Anna Kartsonis and Professor Emerita Rosemary VanArsdel for sound advice, scholarly insights and stimulating conversation. Of course, any omissions or errors in the dissertation are my sole responsibility. i Dedication To Jenny, for her tolerance, patience and encouragement. To my sons, for trying to be still and then racing uncontrollably around the house, for trying to be quiet and then bursting into fits of giggles, for thousands of interruptions to tie a shoe, kick a ball, make a snack, bandage a finger, find a sock, read a book. You make it all worthwhile. ii Table of Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter 1 Constructing the Artist Adventurer ………………………………… 14 Chapter 2 Boston Beginnings ………………………………………………… 46 Chapter 3 Professional Training in Paris ……………………………………… 78 Chapter 4 Edwin Lord Weeks in North Africa …………………………………127 Chapter 5 Weeks and the French Visualization of India ……………………...184 Chapter 6 Empire of the Imagination: the British Visual Legacy ……………204 Chapter 7 An American Vision: India at the Paris Salon ………………………256 Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………313 Appendix 1 Weeks in The Biographical Dictionary (1906) ………………….…323 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………324 iii List of Figures Please note: reproductions of the listed images have not been included in the online version of this dissertation. Figure 1-1. Unknown, Edwin Lord Weeks, n.d., frontispiece, Edwin Lord Weeks, From the Black Sea through Persia and India. Figure 1-2. Edwin Lord Weeks, Untitled. Illustration from Rudyard Kipling, "Kim," McClure’s Magazine 16, no. 2 (Dec. 1900): 3. Available from ProQuest American Periodicals, http://search.proquest.com/docview/135638491?accountid=14784. Figure 1-3. Edwin Lord Weeks, The Snake Charmers, Bombay, n.d., 18 1/4 x 22 inches. Private collection. Reproduced in Hiesinger, 69 plate 12. Figure 1-4. Edwin Lord Weeks, Temple and Tank of Walkeshwar at Bombay, c. 1884, oil on canvas, 64 1/4 x 45 inches. Private collection. Reproduced in Hiesinger, 63 plate 6. Figure 1-5. Augustus Saint-Gaudens, William Merritt Chase, 1888, bronze bas-relief. American Academy and Insitutue of Arts and Letters, New York. Available from Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies, http://www.rockwell-center. org. Figure 1-6. John Singer Sargent, William M. Chase, N.A., 1902, oil on canvas, 62 1/4 x 41 3/8 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Available from http://www.metmuseum.org/ collections/search-the-collections/12471. Figure 1-7. James Carroll Beckwith, Portrait of William Walton, 1886, oil on canvas, 47 7/8 x 28 3/8 inches. The Century Association, New York. Adler, 20 plate 5. Figure 1-8. Julian Alden Weir, Self-portrait, 1886, oil on canvas. National Academy of Design, New York. Available from WikiPaintings, http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/julian-alden- weir. Figure 1-9. W. Balch, Edwin Lord Weeks, (c. 1877), photographic print. Private collection. Digital image provided by Freeman’s Auctioneers, Philadelphia. Figure 1-10. S. W. Silver & Co., The Typical Explorer’s Suit of Silver and Co., Outfitters, from John Murray, How to Live in Tropical Africa: A Guide to Tropical Hygiene and Sanitation (London: The African World, 1895), 223. Reproduced in Ryan Johnson, n.p. iv Figure 1-11. Robert Gavin, Mr. Weeks’ Studio at Rabat, 1878. Reproduced in Benjamin, Our American Artists, 27. Figure 1-12. After Fernand Lochard, Edwin Lord Weeks. Reproduced in Harper’s Weekly, 13 January 1883, 29. Figure 1-13. Edwin Lord Weeks, Entering the Taya Pass. Illustration from Weeks, From the Black Sea through Persia to India, 25. Figure 1-14. Unknown, Edwin Lord Weeks. Reproduced in Weeks, "Ispahan to Kurrachee," Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 88, no. 534 (Jan. 1894): 231. Figure 1-15. Unknown, Selous as a Young Man, In Hunting Costume, photographic print, n.d. Reproduced in John Guille Millais, Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, D.S.O. (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1919), 81. Figure 1-16. Unknown, Edwin Lord Weeks, photographic print, n.d. Reproduced in Robert Barrie, My Log (Philadelphia: Franklin Press, 1917), 53. Figure 1-17. London Stereoscopic Company, Henry M. Stanley, photographic print. Reproduced in Henry M. Stanley, How I Found Livingstone (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, 1872), frontispiece. Figure 1-18. Unknown, [Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones], n.d. Available from Whip Artistry Studio, http://thewhipstudio.com/faq.htm. Figure 1-19. Fortune Louis Meaulle, Henri Meyer, Lieutenant Mizon on His 1892 Mission of Exploration of the River Benue Area in Nigeria, engraving. Reproduced in Le Petit Journal, July 1892. Available from The Bridgeman Art Library, http://www.bridgemanart. com/en-US/ search?filter_text=mizon&filter_group=all. Figure 1-20. Edwin Lord Weeks, Getting Down the Ledge Above the Saddle—Rothhorn. Illustration from Weeks, "Some Episodes of Mountaineering, by a Casual Amateur," Scribner’s Magazine 15, no. 5 (May 1894): 544. Figure 1-21. Edwin Lord Weeks, On the Gallery—near the Rothhorn Summit. Illustration from Weeks, "Some Episodes of Mountaineering, by a Casual Amateur," Scribner’s Magazine 15, no. 5 (May 1894): 542. Figure 1-22. Edwin Lord Weeks, A Rest on the Way Down. Illustration from Weeks, "Some Episodes of Mountaineering, by a Casual Amateur," Scribner’s Magazine 15, no. 5 (May 1894): 543. v Figure 1-23. Unknown, Edwin Lord Weeks in His Studio Seated before The Hour of Prayer at the Muti-Mushid (Pearl Mosque), Agra, c. 1892, photographic print. Reproduced in Heritage Auction Galleries, Fine American and European Paintings and Sculpture, Dallas (2007), as taken from Arthur Hustin, Salon de 1892, Ludovic Baschet, ed. (Paris, 1892), 55. Figure 1-24. Unknown, Edwin Lord Weeks. Shown as reproduced in "Famous Parisian Artists in Their Studios," Booklovers Magazine 3 (Jan.-June 1904): 11. Figure 2-1. Edwin Lord Weeks, Stephen Weeks, n.d., charcoal on paper, 21 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches (sight). Private collection. Reproduced in Ganley, 21 note 22 and plate 22. Figure 2-2. Unknown, Eliot Hall, 234–38 Tremont St., c. 1865, photograph [arrows added by the author to indicated signage for Stephen Weeks & Co. and the Tremont Gymnasium]. Available from Bostonian Society, Item No. VW0001/- #001253, http://www.boston history.org. Figure 2-3.