|
Cultures wed - two centuries of reciprocity
- Monet's American disciples - part of an excursion to Giverny
|
 |
 - Robinson, "The Wedding March", 1892
|
American painters settled near Monet in the west-of-Paris village he had chosen (in 1883). Their colony greatly contributed to France's influence on early 20th-century American art. We explore this fusion at the Musée d'art américain, which is a few steps from Monet's home.
|
|
A member of the American artists' colony painted a colleague's wedding to Monet's step-daughter, in Giverny. The man in the foreground is Monet.
|
|
|
|
- They were part of the American community that grew up in Paris in the course of the 19th century...
|
|
 - Béraud, "The American Cathedral on Christmas Day, 1900"
|
...that was important enough to build two néo-Gothic churches, one on each bank of the Seine. Luminaries include: Edith Wharton, James Singer Sargent, Henry James ...
|
|
Visiting the churches, passing by some of the dwellings, telling anecdotes and reading excepts are part of our walk.
|
|
|
|
|
- In Hemingway's footsteps - walking tour
Most major American writers of the 1920's hung out on the Left Bank. Our walk through picturesque neighborhoods that Hemingway immortalizes includes:
•The site of the English-language bookstore that dared publish Ulysses.
•The Luxembourg gardens, through which Hemingway would pass on his way to Gertrude Stein's salon.
•A painting by Delacroix that the young man would ponder. His writing expresses a comparable violence and dignity.
•The café where he wrote much of The Sun Also Rises.
We read some of Hemingway's recollections of his youth in Paris and describe how the city's attraction to artists from everywhere took off in those years.
- American women's salons - talk (for groups)
|
|
 - Celebrated bookstore
|
|
|
 - Picasso, "Gertrude Stein", 1906
Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, Nancy Cunard, Romaine Brooks, Isadora Duncan... were among the Americans who came to Paris for its artistic and sexual freedom.
|
|
Our French lecturer, who would have been in his element in their salons, explains their contribution to the Parisian culture of their time.
|
|
|
|
- THE Franco-American star and other celebrated black Americans - talk (for groups)
|
|
 - Recent exhibit, famous poster
The girl from the St. Louis ghetto who in the 1920's launched Les Folies Bergère, suntans and Two loves have I, and later participated in the Resistance, remains beloved in France.
|
|
 - Inaugurating the Place Josephine Baker (2004)
The chanteuse who inaugurated the Place named after Baker is guest of the African-American who encouraged that decision, who tells us about Josephine, her neighbors Wright and Baldwin and African-American intellectuals who live in Paris now.
|
|
|
|
- Concerts at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau
|
|
•Day trips
•Celebrated sites
 - Events on the level of their site
|
General Pershing, Commander of American forces in France during World War 1, wished to improve U.S. military music. So after the war he joined French composer and conductor Francis Casadesus in founding the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau. Its purpose: to give promising American musicians outstanding training in France.
|
|
Anecdote: When Aaron Copland, age 20, received a Conservatory scholarship, he accepted it for the free trip to France. One lesson with Nadia Boulanger made him feel that he was a beginner. Later she invited him to collaborate. Overwhelmed, he accepted. She said, "Good. Now let's get on with the lesson." - Told by a former student
|
Students come in July and during that month, the Conservatory, whose Director is Philippe Entremont, presents superb concerts in the château. We are happy to give you of the dates.
|
|
|
* * *
Giverny painting / Courtesy Terra Foundation for the Arts; Conservatory / kindly supplied by Joe Kerr
•Top of page
•Franco-Americans
•Founders
•World War 1
|
|
