The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris (101 page)

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.

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.

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.

PAGE

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.