SOURCE NOTES

1. The Way Over

A great part of the source material for this book is, in addition to being of historic value, a pure joy to read because so many of the protagonists were superb writers. This is vividly clear from the very start, in what they wrote of their time outward bound for France. Such descriptions to be found in the letters and journals of even those who did not regard themselves as professional writers—like Emma Willard, Charles Sumner, or Thomas Appleton—amply qualify as American literature of the sea. Anyone wishing a sample of the professional virtuosity of a writer like Nathaniel Willis need only read his hilarious account of dining on board the brig Pacific in rough weather.

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3 The thought of going abroad: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 190.

4 “a little pleasure concealed”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 126.

4 “when standing in a pair of substantial boots”: Ibid., 56.

4 By contrast, his friend Charles Sumner: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 92.

4 Emma Willard, founder: Lutz, Emma Willard: Pioneer Educator of American Women, vii.

4 “My dear mother was rather alarmed”: Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 52.

5 “got entirely out of trim”: Franklin, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years, 395.

5 “How long do you mean to be absent?”: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 5.

5 “classic features”: Lutz, Emma Willard: Pioneer Educator of American Women, 87.

5 “She was a splendid looking woman”: Ibid., 45.

6 “Old Ironsides”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 81.

6 “tasted the intoxicating pleasure”: Ibid., 80.

6 tried law school for a year: Ibid., 78.

6 “anything better than a rural dispenser”: Ibid., 82.

6 “sameness”: Ibid., 74.

6 “We learned nominally”: Ibid., 38.

7 Mathematics utterly bewildered him: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 47.

7 “an indefatigable and omnivorous student”: Ibid., 106.

7 “The thought of going abroad”: Ibid., 190.

7 In 1822 he had undertaken: Morse’s House of Representatives hangs in the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington. His Marquis de Lafayette still hangs in New York’s City Hall.

8 Word came of the death of his wife: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 265.

8 “My education as a painter”: Ibid., 289.

8 “historical painter”: Morse passport, Samuel F. B. Morse Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

8 “right hand man”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 18.

8 “quite prettily”: Ibid., 17.

8 “terribly timid”: Ibid., 18.

8 When the friendly proprietor: Ibid., 22.

9 “Little Healy”: Ibid., 25.

9 “I told her that I was an artist”: Ibid., 31.

9 One small, especially lovely: The portrait of Fanny Appleton is on display at Longfellow House—Washington’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

9 I knew no one in France: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 35.

10 “anticipation of Oscar Wilde”: Holmes, A Mortal Antipathy, 4.

10 “dress them up one day”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, preface.

11 When news of the July Revolution: New York Evening Post, September 8, 1830.

11 He had worked for a while: Proud part of the Union Oyster House history, Boston, Mass.

11 Steamboats by this time: Allington and Greenhill, The First Atlantic Liners, 7.

12 a London packet fittingly named Crisis: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 9.

12 But a wide sea voyage: Washington Irving, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (NY: Heritage Press, 1939), 8.

13 Fare to Le Havre: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 14.

13 Acquaintances who had made the trip: Susan Cooper to her sister, May 30, 1826, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

13 “I am very glad, my dear”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 210.

13 “Follow, my dear boy”: Ibid., 212.

14 The written “Instructions”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 8.

14 “fond of theaters and dissipation”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 48.

14 “And a sad time”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 213.

14 “great depression”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 94.

14 “We have left the wharf”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, 211.

14 And as she came down the river: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 12.

15 “the fairest wind”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 300.

15 “inquire into everything”: Brogan, Alexis de Tocqueville, 145.

15 “In rough weather”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 19–20.

16 “It is a day”: Ibid., 13.

16 in contrast to Wendell Holmes: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 83.

16 “The accommodations”: New York Evening Post, February 28, 1833.

17 I felt nothing of that do-little: Appleton, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, 86.

17 “voice in the steerage”: Ibid., 87–88.

17 “the still-life of the day previous”: Ibid., 88.

17 “chattering in terror”: Ibid.

17 “deeply, darkly, beautifully blue”: Ibid., 89.

17 “A most delightful evening”: Ibid., 90.

17 What an odd, good-for-nothing: Ibid., 91–92.

18 “vast islands of ice”: Ibid., 92.

18 “Some of the older passengers”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 11.

18 “Then the waters rise up”: Ibid., 10–11.

18 Thus with the raging element: Ibid.

18 “the rocking and rolling”: Ibid., 2.

19 “If any lady of your village”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 14.

19 “Literally ‘cabined’”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 45.

19 “Bay of Fundy tide”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 215.

19 In going abroad at my present age: Ibid., 214.

20 “cataract of French postulation”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 27.

20 “vexatious ceremony”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 25.

20 In conversation with an English-speaking: Ibid.

20 “to pay the Virgin Mary”: Ibid., 15.

21 “Everything was old”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 218.

21 “beyond the reach”: Ibid.

21 “none of the prestige”: Ibid.

21 “If you feel very aristocratic”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 26.

22 I looked at the constantly occurring ruins: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 32.

23 “inexpressible magic”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 27.

23 I had heard of fifty: Ibid., 26–27.

23 “the great lion of the north”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 221.

24 And here was I: Ibid., 222.

24 In an account of his own first stop: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 76.

2. Voilà Paris!

Of the contemporary books about Paris drawn on for this chapter, Pencillings by the Way by Nathaniel Willis, John Sanderson’s two-volume The American in Paris, and James Fenimore Cooper’s Gleanings in Europe: France are outstanding. Sanderson’s first volume in particular is a jewel, one of the best books about Paris by an American ever written. Of the letters and journal entries, those by Charles Sumner and Oliver Wendell Holmes are invariably descriptive and revealing.

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25 The origin of Paris: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, 1.

26 “Voilà Paris!”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 31.

26 “And with my mind full”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 36.

26 “The streets run zig-zag”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 33.

26 “dirt and gilding”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 145.

26 “We were amidst”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 30.

27 “quite pretty” rooms: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 37.

27 There are few things: Ibid., 37.

28 indispensable was Galignani’s New Paris Guide: See, for example, Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, 182.

28 “the bread is fine”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 32.

28 “Miss D”: Ibid., 33.

28 We took the rounds: Ibid., 34.

29 a few “wearable things”: Ibid.

29 “When I went in”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 316.

29 In her turn: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 39.

29 “His heart seemed to expand”: Ibid., 40.

29 “If he keeps near the wall”: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, May 31, 1833, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

30 Holmes, like his fellow Bostonians: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 85; Dowling, Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris, 184.

30 The cold continues intolerable: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 241.

30 “I freeze behind”: Ibid.

31 “My voyage has already been compensated”: Ibid., 234.

31 flâner: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 88.

31 “Ah! To wander”: Balzac, Works of Honoré de Balzac, Vol. II, 133.

31 Interestingly, “Home, Sweet Home”: Overmyer, America’s First Hamlet, 202.

31 “If you get into melancholy”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 128.

32 “uniform politeness”: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, 27.

32 “Indeed,” wrote Holmes: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 101.

32 “the originality of American civilization”: Tocqueville, Democracy in America, 46.

33 “You ask a man the way”: Appleton, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, 135.

33 “Don’t you hate to see”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 57.

33 how he had “decorated” himself: Longfellow, Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Vol. I, 173.

33 “the glory of a little French hat”: Ibid.

34 “You should remember that you are an American”: Calhoun, Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life, 44.

34 No matter what is the article of trade: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 38.

34 “caressing and caressing”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 67.

35 “The French dine to gratify”: Ibid., 87.

35 “in blending flavors”: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 124.

35 A dinner here: Ibid., 125.

35 “loud modern New York”: Emerson, The Journals and Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ferguson, Vol. IV, 197.

35 “the most hospitable of cities”: Ibid.

36 Then a person who cut profiles: Ibid., 198.

36 Nathaniel Willis kept seeing: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 84.

36 “impatient of all levity”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 51.

37 Happy the nation: Sterne, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, 125.

37 John Sanderson hired a cabriolet: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 47.

37 “It is a queer feeling”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 43.

37 No sooner had Cooper settled in Paris: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 277.

37 “He calls the Tuileries”: Ibid., 281.

38 The captain commenced: Ibid., 278.

38 best “look-out”: Ibid., 88.

38 We were fortunate: Ibid., 89.

38 The domes sprung up: Ibid., 90.

39 “peculiarities”: Ibid.

39 “confused glittering”: Ibid.

39 Charles Sumner, for his part: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 276.

39 “streets without houses”: Ibid., 133.

39 “It only grows under”: Ibid.

39 “great design”: Ibid.

40 “We must, if it be possible”: Hugo, Notre-Dame of Paris, 28.

40 “That, its author”: Ibid.

40 “The atmosphere brightened”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 166.

41 “that most chivalrous”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 77.

41 The bridge immediately: Ibid., 55, 77.

41 “very heart of Paris”: Ibid., 53.

42 “with a throb”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 88.

42 “Holmes and I actually were at the Louvre”: Appleton, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, 130.

42 Another day Appleton returned on his own: Ibid., 132–33, 137–38.

42 “much esteemed and bear a high price”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 247.

42 “little or no drapery”: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 302.

42 No, my dear girls: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 62.

43 “running and hiding their faces”: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 302.

43 “Who would live in this rank old Paris”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 98.

43 Garden of the Tuileries: See, generally, Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, 147–52.

44 “the most fashionable promenade”: Ibid., 152.

44 “I have been there repeatedly”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 78–79.

44 “I never venture”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 102.

44 “every inch of it”: Ibid., 104.

45 Let us have gardens: Ibid., 106.

45 “a library on the street”: Ibid., 60.

46 “You can stop in on your way”: Ibid., 164.

46 “nothing that did not belong”: Hugo, Notre-Dame of Paris, 136.

47 “And it seemed to me”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 74.

47 “In our own country”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 88.

48 “The evening need never hang”: Emerson, The Journals and Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ferguson, Vol. IV, 202.

48 Faultlessly attired: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 37.

48 “genteel society”: Ibid.

48 I never saw so many: Ibid.

49 “We may make many valuable improvements”: Ibid., 164.

49 Charles Sumner made a point: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 236.

49 dazzling Marie Taglioni: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 48.

50 “No language can describe”: Ibid., 50.

50 Her figure is small: Ibid., 49–50.

50 “Mercy! How deficient”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 46.

50 “overwhelming tumult”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 51.

50 “We shall never have”: Ibid.

50 “And when they come upon stage”: Ibid.

51 Indeed, while at the opera: James Jackson, Jr., to his father, March 20, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

51 “James Jackson has just come up”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 98.

51 “There is no need of cutting”: Ibid., 120.

52 “Molière could not have”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. II, 129.

52 “Her voice is like a silver flute”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 234.

52 “Thousands in merry moods”: Appleton, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, 129.

52 “the blaze of day”: Ibid.

52 “Cafés abound in Paris”: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, li.

52 It is impossible to conceive: Ibid.

52 “Alas, my poor roasting”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 84.

52 “Your best way”: Ibid., 85.

53 the elegant Trois Frères Provençaux: Les Trois Frères Provençaux no longer exists. Le Grand Véfour, in the Palais Royal, is the oldest restaurant in Paris still operating at its original site and one of the finest in the city.

53 As much as the food and the wine: Holmes, The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, 24.

53 “ladies of easy virtue”: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, 176.

53 The Palais Royal, Holmes liked to say: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 99.

53 “haunts where the stranger”: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 1827, iii.

53 “Billiards, cards, faro”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 94.

54 “Young men are very fond of Paris”: Emerson, The Journals and Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ferguson, Vol. IV, 201.

54 “arrangements”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 88.

54 “They are very pretty”: Ibid., 199.

54 If a student is ill: Ibid.

54 “out of order”: Ibid., 203.

55 If you can preserve him: Ibid., 204.

55 “My anxiety deprives me”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 209.

55 Sumner hated seeing so many soldiers: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 238.

55 Emma Willard was appalled to learn: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 235, 236.

56 An American or Englishman when he first: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, September 28, 1833, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

57 gathering places like the Café Procope: The Café Procope continues in business, though much enhanced from what it was in Holmes’s day.

57 It had been started in 1670 by a Sicilian: Barclay, A Place in the World Called Paris, 51.

57 “I am getting more and more a Frenchman”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 109.

57 “Good Americans, when they die”: Holmes, The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table, 121.

58 Some days, according to his wife, Susan: Susan Cooper to her children, May 15, 1828, Cooper Family Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

58 “But manage he did”: Bigot, Life of George P. A. Healy, 9.

58 “He lived like his comrades”: Ibid., 13.

58 “the Boswell of Paris”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 43.

58 “It seems as if a spell”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 241.

59 recruited a first teacher of French: See copy of Madame Alphise de Courval’s contract dated March 19, 1831. Courtesy of Nancy Ianucci, Emma Willard School Archives.

59 “the effect was speedily”: Lord, The Life of Emma Willard, 134.

3. Morse at the Louvre

The six volumes of Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper are a treasure trove, not only for so much that Cooper writes, but for the thorough notes provided by editor James Franklin Beard. Cooper was a far more interesting man and the popularity of his work abroad far greater than generally appreciated in our time. Of considerable interest, too, are the letters of Susan Cooper, in the collection of the Beinecke Library at Yale. The main sources for Morse and his travails have been Samuel F. B. Morse, His Letters and Journals, in two volumes; The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Samuel I. Prime; The American Leonardo by Carleton Mabee; and the more recent Lightning Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse by Kenneth Silverman.

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61 My country has the most: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 33.

61 “hard at work”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, 235.

61 “has created a sensation”: Ibid., 172.

61 “He is painting”: Ibid., 239.

61 “just as good a fellow”: Ibid.

61 “friends are rare”: Cooper, The Prairie(Penguin), 29.

61 Cooper and Morse had met first: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 263.

62 “Crowds get round the picture”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 239.

62 “deliciously spring-like”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 107.

62 “wholly bent”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 109.

62 “wicked Morse”: Ibid.

62 “without a true love”: Ibid.

63 “amazingly improved”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 163.

63 Morse had no sooner unpacked: Ibid., 167, 172.

63 Bread and Cheese: Silverman, Lightning Man, 89.

63 “I saw nothing but Jefferson”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 96.

63 One stunning example of the genre: Tatham, “Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre: The Figures in the Foreground,” American Art Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), 41.

64 On a small piece of paper, Jefferson had drawn: The piece of paper with Jefferson’s floor plan and Trumbull’s sketch is one of the treasures of the Trumbull Collection at the Yale Art Gallery.

65 Cooper loved what he saw emerging: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 239.

66 I get up at eight: Ibid.

66 “Lay it on here, Samuel”: Ibid.

67 “the independent, self-possessed”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 43–44.

67 Morse with his kind: Ibid., 110.

67 “chameleon face”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 415.

68 Morse’s passport: Papers of Samuel F. B. Morse, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

68 “little pleasure concealed”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 126.

68 Cooper’s nephew William: Ibid., Vol. II, 144.

68 Cooper’s wife, Susan: Ibid., 168.

69 “They[the French]”: Ibid., 175.

69 “Of course, I believe them”: Ibid., 109.

69 “When he goes into crowded rooms”: Susan Cooper to her sisters, November 29, 1830, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

69 “What are you to do”: James Jackson, Sr., to James Jackson, Jr., November 25, 1831, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

69 “a good deal of exaggeration”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 139.

69 Cooper had been reading aloud: Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 38.

70 he was expelled at age sixteen: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 5.

70 Finding he liked the sailor’s life: Franklin, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years, 109, 111.

70 “By persuasion of Mrs. Cooper”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 44, 43.

71 The house he had built burned: Ibid., 84.

71 Cooper had written The Last of the Mohicans: Franklin, The New World of James Fenimore Cooper, 240.

71 “I think Pioneers, Mohicans”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 168.

72 He was hailed as the American Walter Scott: Ibid., Vol. II, 84.

72 “the mere butterflies”: Ibid., Vol. I, 15.

72 “The fear of losing their butterfly distinctions”: Ibid., 16.

72 “It is a weary path, indeed”: Cooper, The Prairie (Penguin), 23.

72 “a point of honor”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 61.

72 “gaining ground daily”: Ibid., Vol. I, 165.

73 “more than anyone”: Ashbel Smith to W. Hall, February 25, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

73 “a very distingué part of the town”: Susan Cooper to her sister Caroline, April 26, n.d. (probably 1833), James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

73 The salon is near thirty feet: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, 83. The building in which the Coopers lived at 59 rue Saint-Dominique is still there.

73 “adjoining Mr. Cooper’s library”: Susan Cooper to her sister Caroline, April 26, n.d. (probably 1833), James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

73 “prattle like natives”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 223.

73 “We [are] … very retired”: Susan Cooper to her sister Martha, January 26–27, 1831, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

74 “Instead of seeking society”: Cooper, Gleanings in Europe: France, Vol. I, xx.

74 “The people seem to think”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 209.

74 Willis would describe: Ibid., Vol. II, 122.

74 “Some of the best hours”: Willard, Journal and Letters, from France and Great Britain, 90.

74 “our worthy friend, Mr. Morse”: Susan Cooper to her sister Caroline, January 26, 1832(?), James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

74 “an excellent man”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 113.

75 “daily … almost hourly”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 314.

75 “gentlemen in all republican simplicity”: Franklin, James Fenimore Cooper: The Early Years, 382.

75 “understood the look of a gentleman”: Dowling, Oliver Wendell Holmes in Paris, 119.

75 “genius in land speculation”: Cunningham, ed., James Fenimore Cooper: A ReAppraisal, 374.

75 “my noble-looking”: Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 340.

76 “Geography” Morse: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 15; Silverman, Lightning Man, 10.

76 “very steady and good scholars”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 21.

76 “I was made for a painter”: Ibid.

76 “unsteady”: Ibid., 11.

76 “Attend to one thing at a time”: Ibid., 4.

76 “steady and undissipated”: Ibid., 5.

76 “one object”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 12.

76 “Your mama and I”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 22.

77 “no use of Segars”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 11.

77 “The main business of life”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 8.

77 study under Washington Allston: Ibid., 21, 32.

77 His parents had designed: Ibid., 31–32.

78 desire to “shine”: Ibid., 177.

78 “mortifying”: Ibid., 74–75.

78 “and that really to improve”: Ibid., 75.

78 “Oh, he is an angel”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 22.

79 Morse was amazed to learn: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 45.

79 “appeared very zealous”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 36.

79 “Paint large!”: Ibid., 103.

79 “Mr. West … told me”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 102.

79 “These are necessary to a painter”: Ibid.

79 “You mention being acquainted”: Ibid., 118.

79 “quarrelsome companions”: Ibid., 180.

80 “no nice dinners”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 27.

80 “mere portrait painter”: Ibid., 132.

80 I need not tell you: Ibid.

80 “I long to bury myself”: Ibid., 152.

81 “She is very beautiful”: Ibid., 204.

81 “Is she acquainted with domestic affairs”: Ibid., 207.

81 $2,000 to $3,000: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 209.

81 he developed a flexible (leather) piston: Ibid., 211.

81 machine for carving marble: Ibid., 245, 247.

81 Reverend Morse was asked to leave the pulpit: Ibid., 223–24.

82 “fully employed”: Ibid., 257.

82 “a nine days’ wonder”: Ibid., 258.

82 “You will rejoice with me”: Ibid., 259.

82 “My feelings were almost too powerful for me”: Ibid., 262.

82 “not good”: Ibid.

82 “noble” countenance: Ibid., 261.

82 “accordance between the face and the character”: Ibid., 262.

83 “There was a great crowd”: Ibid.

83 “I have but little room”: Ibid., 264.

83 “My affectionately beloved son”: Ibid., 265.

83 “My whole soul seemed wrapped”: Ibid., 269.

83 To my friends here: Ibid., 270.

84 “a life of severe and perpetual toil”: New York Evening Post, May 4, 1827.

84 Reverend Jedidiah Morse died: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 288.

84 In 1828 she, too, died: Ibid., 293.

85 The sun is just disappearing: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 112.

85 “exotic production”: Delaporte, Disease and Civilization, 17.

85 The first word of cholera in Paris: New York Evening Post, May 1, 1832.

85 “in the presence of thirty-eight medical men”: Ibid.

86 “Her eyes were started from their sockets”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 126.

86 Stomach contained a quart of reddish fluid: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., March 20, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

86 “Vast numbers of people”: New York Evening Post, May 7, 1832.

86 “a disease of the most frightful nature”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 1, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

86 “It is almost like walking through an autopsy room”: Ibid.

86 The official bulletin of the morning: Journal of Ashbel Smith, April 3, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.

86 “But if, as I think it highly possible”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., November 25, 1831, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

87 We are bound as men: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 1, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

87 The common understanding: See, generally, Delaporte, Disease and Civilization, 199–200.

87 Wild rumors spread: NewYork Mirror, May 19, 1832; New York Evening Post, May 18, 1832.

88 “We have had pestilence”: Susan Cooper to her sister, April 1832, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

88 “in the doctor’s hands”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 242.

88 “bilious attack”: Ibid.

88 “It is spreading rapidly all over France”: Susan Cooper to her sister, April 1832, James Fenimore Cooper Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.

88 “Samuel was nervous even unto flight”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. II, 245.

88 “The churches are all hung in black”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 120.

88 A young French woman, Amandine-Aurore-Lucie Dupin: Harlan, George Sand, 141.

89 There was a cholera-waltz: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 122.

89 I walk by the riverside: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., April 5, 1832, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

89 “bent on bringing some especial thing”: Memorial of James Fenimore Cooper, 18.

90 “My anxiety to finish my picture”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 422.

90 The thirty-eight pictures in his painting: See, generally, David Tatham, “Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre: The Figures in the Foreground,” American Art Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), 38–48.

92 “total want of all the usual courtesies”: Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, 20.

92 “I do not like their principles”: Ibid., vii.

92 Nathaniel Willis had observed: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 110.

92 “He has a bold, original, independent mind”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 426–28.

93 “without feeling every day”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 164.

93 “Paris is a home to me”: Ibid., 165.

93 Even Alexander von Humboldt: Silverman, Lightning Man, 117.

93 “took pains to find me out”: Ibid.

94 Probably 12,000 people: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren,M.D., 54.

94 By summer’s end: Ibid.

94 In New York the epidemic: New York Times, April 15, 2008.

94 Fourth of July: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 423–25.

94 “like the buoys upon tide-water”: Ibid., 425.

95 “a splendid and valuable” work: Silverman, Lightning Man, 117.

95 In the completed painting: See, generally, Tatham, “Samuel F. B. Morse’s Gallery of the Louvre: The Figures in the Foreground,” American Art Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 4 (Autumn 1981), 38–48.

97 By rendering Sue Cooper as he did: Ibid., 41, 44–45.

97 “dissipating their time in gambling”: Mabee, American Leonardo, 129.

97 “disfiguring the landscape”: Ibid.

97 “numberless bowings”: Ibid.

97 “If it were a mere civility”: Ibid., 130.

97 Once, on a street in Rome: Silverman, Lightning Man, 105.

98 “He is with me”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 426.

98 more than 200 people a day were dying: New York Evening Post, September 3, 1832.

98 His work at the Louvre at an end: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 432.

99 “the manner, the place, and the moment”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 153–54.

99 “I confess I thought the notion”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. I, 419.

99 I recollect also: Ibid., 418.

100 “My picture, c’est fini”: Cooper, Correspondence of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 320.

100 It went on public view: New York Evening Post, October 14, 1833.

100 We do not know which most to admire: NewYork Mirror, November 2, 1833.

100 Eventually it was bought: Silverman, Lightning Man,129–30.

100 Morse had hoped to get: Ibid., 129.

101 That The Gallery: New York Times, July 30, 1982.

4. The Medicals

The wealth of material in the letters of the American medical students in Paris is extraordinary, and again one is struck by how extremely well written they are, even though the young men writing them (with the exception of Oliver Wendell Holmes) did not aspire to be writers or to write “writing.” Those by Mason Warren, for example, are exemplary in their thoroughness and clarity. But then it was a day and age when young people were expected to write letters to their families and to use the English language properly. Holmes’s letters are notable for their wit and his consistent, irrepressible love of learning.

Of books written at the time, Old Wine in New Bottles by Augustus Kinsley Gardener is particularly good on student life in Paris, and John Harley Warner’s excellent Against the Spirit of System: The French Impulse in Nineteenth-Century American Medicine(1998) has also been of great value in understanding the long-range effect of the Paris training.

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103 It is no trifle: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 86.

104 Largest of the hospitals: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 13.

104 This one hospital: Ibid., 13–14.

104 Second in size: Ibid., 14.

104 The Hôpital des Enfants Malades: Ibid., 15.

105 In the single year of 1833: Ibid., 13.

105 In Boston, by comparison: Ibid.

105 Velpeau, as everyone knew: Ibid., 29.

106 Compared to the hospitals: Stewart, Eminent French Surgeons, 129.

106 Its central amphitheater for lectures: The École de Médecine’s central amphitheater is still much as it was and still in use.

106 Further, for foreign students: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 3.

106 There were still, in the 1830s: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, January–February 1973, 50.

106 [At about age eighteen]the lad: Cooper, The Pioneers, 72–73.

107 Enrollment was as high as: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 50.

107 The American students: Ibid., 47.

107 “attachment”: Ashbel Smith to Eugene Rousseau, January 1, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.

107 “I dislike to fix”: Ashbel Smith to Daniel Seymour, February 6, 1832, Center for American History, University of Texas.

108 “The glory of the week”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., November 1, 1832, Jackson Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

108 “perfect ignoramus”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. II, 128.

108 “quite overwhelmed”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 158.

108 “very nice”: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, May 31, 1833, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

108 A “little extra”: Ibid.

108 Holmes found he could make it: Though the house where Holmes lived is no longer there on the rue Monsieur-le-Prince, the walk to the École can still be made in under four minutes, even by one more than three times his age.

108 I commonly rise: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 100.

109 “No one ever heard”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 269.

109 he “never for a moment”: Ibid., 119.

109 In a pencil drawing: See Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 10.

109 “He was, in truth”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 171–72.

110 “in regard to the necessities”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 70.

110 “Observe operations”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 306.

110 “Send me without delay”: Ibid., 309.

111 “There is a face”: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson,Jr., M.D., 212.

111 In the United States: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 50.

111 “a French head”: James Jackson, Jr., to James Jackson, Sr., July 27, 1831, Jackson Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

112 “shake them off from his broad shoulders”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 93.

112 Holmes had from the start: See ibid., 102.

112 Dupuytren, one of the medical giants: See ibid., 93.

112 “a lesser kind of deity”: Ibid.

112 “make a show”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 89.

112 “His operations are always brilliant”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 84.

112 “He is always endeavoring”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 108.

112 “very neat and rapid”: Ibid., 167.

113 “kind of off-hand way”: Ibid.

113 “a great drawer of blood”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 92.

113 “Without it he would probably”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 205.

114 If his orders: Ibid., 108.

114 “In his lectures”: Ibid., 116.

114 “le brigand”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 84.

115 “a good sound head”: Holmes, “Some of My Early Teachers,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 429.

115 “The French woman”: Gardener, Old Wine in New Bottles, 161.

115 The second great difference: Truax, The Doctors Warren of Boston, 153.

116 In the South: Shafer, The American Medical Profession, 1783–1850, 62.

116 “living a kind of student’s life”: Sanderson, The American in Paris, Vol. I, 184.

116 “cut him into inch pieces”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 51.

116 Here the assiduous student: Gardener, Old Wine in New Bottles, 68–69.

117 I never was so busy: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 89.

117 By comparison, the library: Shafer, The American Medical Profession: 1783–1850, 73.

117 “What a feast”: Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 110.

118 “By the blessing of God”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 20.

118 “devotes himself”: Ibid., 28.

119 “The days are so much occupied”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 221.

119 “an entire new field”: Ibid., 191–92.

119 Madame Marie-Louise LaChapelle: Ibid.

119 Bowditch was to say: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 205 n.

119 To Wendell Holmes: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 186.

119 “I send you by ship”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 107.

120 Trois Frères: Ibid., 59.

120 “sad on finding himself”: Ibid., 111.

120 There is no doubt: Ibid.

121 “There is a notion”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 106.

121 The King is caricatured: Ibid.

121 “sober revolution”: Ibid.

121 “impulsive, ardent”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 84–85.

121 Olivia Yardley: Ibid.

121 “La Grisette”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 112.

122 “with his grisette”: Frazee, The Medical Student in Europe, 116.

122 In the 1840s young Philip Claiborne Gooch: Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 119. See also Gooch’s journal at the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia.

122 I uncork the bottle: Ibid., 125.

123 “At 6 A.M. I go to the hospital”: Jones, “American Doctors and the Parisian Medical World, 1830–1840,” 76.

123 “the love of truth”: Holmes, “Some of My Early Teachers,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 436.

124 “You are working, sir”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 107.

124 “almost a novelty”: Ibid., 183.

124 “The mind of this gentleman”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 37.

124 “serene and grave aspect”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 91.

125 “In very truth”: James Jackson to his father, January 16, 1833, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

126 “We are a business”: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson, Jr., M.D., 80.

126 “In two hours”: James Jackson to his father, July 13, 1833, Jackson Family Papers, Countway Library, Harvard Medical School.

126 “Thrice happy”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 64.

126 because the young man: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 108–9.

127 “I am more and more attached”: Ibid., 89.

127 My aim has been to qualify: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, April 30, 1834, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

127 “I tell you that it is not throwing away money”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 123.

127 “one poor fellow”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 195.

128 “Many of the dead”: Ibid., 196.

128 “No one could excite”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 122.

128 “I have seldom seen”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 178.

128 Our autumnal fever: Jackson, Memoir of James Jackson,Jr., M.D., 58.

128 “What shall I say of his ambition?”: Ibid., 65.

129 “They buried the old patriot”: Willis, Pencillings by the Way, 459.

130 “great crowd”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 243.

130 George Shattuck: See Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 76–77.

130 “every kind of hurt”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 249.

130 “Blessed be science”: Oliver Wendell Holmes to his parents, December 28, 1834, Holmes Papers, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

131 “He had quite a large audience”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. I, 241.

131 They were standing in the midst: Ibid., 241.

131 “They appear to be nothing more”: Ibid., 113.

132 “a thousand things undone”: Ibid., 294.

132 “medical mecca”: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 2.

132 nearly seven hundred Americans: Ibid., 2.

132 “Apart from all other considerations”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 216.

132 “modern scientific medicine”: Warner, Against the Spirit of System, 363.

133 John Collins Warren, at age seventy: Warren, The Parisian Education of an American Surgeon, 64.

133 A month later, on November 12, 1846: Ibid.

134 “He was never tired”: Morse, Life and Letters of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Vol. I, 1, 77.

134 “He had that quality”: Holmes, “Some of My Early Teachers,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 532–33.

135 “that I gave myself”: Ibid., 433.

135 “the best of all”: Holmes, “Scholastic and Bedside Teaching,” in Medical Essays, 1842–1882, 305.

135 “He never allowed his interests”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 262.

136 While medicine is your chief aim: Ibid., 262–63.

136 “I suspect that my ear-drums”: Arnold, Memoir of Jonathan Mason Warren, M.D., 254.

136 “Found my old garçon, John”: Bowditch, Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, Vol. I, 318.

136 “as beautiful in his old age”: Ibid., 144.

5. American Sensations

The advantage of the English language newspaper Galignani’s Messenger as a window on American life in Paris can hardly be overstated. Founded in 1814, it became a daily paper that covered virtually all aspects of political, business, cultural, social, and international news and with a degree of objectivity rare for a Paris paper. For following events surrounding les sensations américaines, it has been of immense help.

S. Frederick Starr’s Louis Moreau Gottschalk is a superb biography of the brilliant pianist, and best by far on George Catlin and his show are Catlin’s own writings in The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians.

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139 We were met on the steps: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, Vol. II, 211.

139 “the most beautiful”: Gernsheim and Gernsheim, L. J. M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype, 89.

139 the paddle steamer Sirius: See New York Herald articles, May 2–June 21, 1838.

140 “Little Healy”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 25.

140 Arriving in Paris at age twenty-one: Ibid., 34–35.

141 “Perhaps many a young and audacious”: Ibid., 108.

141 “went to work with a will”: Ibid., 36.

141 He coolly turned over my sheet: Ibid., 78.

141 “There was in Couture’s”: Ibid., 80.

142 “a saddened and almost despairing”: Ibid., 37.

142 “Gros est un homme”: Ibid., 38.

142 “He had outlived his popularity”: Ibid., 39.

142 My life at this time was a life: Ibid.

142 His physical appearance: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 28.

142 He was seldom still: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 109, 40.

143 General Lewis Cass, asked Healy: Ibid., 116, 52.

143 In June of 1838: Ibid., 204, 167.

143 Audubon was in London: Ibid., 205.

143 “enough to fix my destinies”: Ibid., 43.

143 In the spring of 1839: Ibid., 45.

143 “not a penny”: Ibid., 47.

143 General Cass, who was on excellent terms: Ibid., 116.

144 Before beginning the portrait: Ibid., 117–18.

144 Healy found Louis-Philippe easy to talk to: Ibid., 118.

144 The concierge kept the place clean: Ibid., 48.

144 They began entertaining: Ibid., 44–45.

145 “perfectly charming”: Ibid., 177.

145 “cold”: Ibid., 175, 179.

146 “Healy is an excellent fellow”: Appleton, Life and Letters of Thomas Gold Appleton, 243–44.

146 “a rather better place”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 50.

146 In 1842, at the request of the king: Ibid., 121.

146 When the king and others: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 111.

146 “a magnificent-looking man”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 163.

146 In the spring of 1845: Ibid., 139.

147 “Can’t sit, sir”: Ibid.

147 The visitor from Paris: Ibid., 141, 144, 145.

147 From Tennessee: Ibid., 145.

147 It seemed odd: Ibid., 153–54.

147 “Brush them off on one side”: Ibid., 156.

148 “I was but a small boy then”: Ibid., 154.

148 “In those far-away days”: Ibid., 160.

148 “Having been delayed”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 358.

148 “The beauty of the Seine”: New York Herald, September 18, 1838.

148 Morse thought their hotel: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 359.

149 “You cannot know the depth”: Ibid., 361.

149 He welcomed the prospect: Silverman, Lightning Man, 129–32.

149 Moreover, to his extreme embarrassment: Ibid., 122.

149 A new position as professor: Ibid., 124.

149 carrying in his groceries after dark: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 43.

149 For a long time: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. I, 80, 143–44.

149 “historical edifice”: Ibid., 80.

149 Morse had joined in the Nativist movement: Silverman, Lightning Man, 139.

150 “The serpent has already commenced”: Ibid., 135.

150 Mr. Morse is a scholar and a gentleman: New York Commercial Advertiser, April 19, 1836.

150 But when word reached Morse: Silverman, Lightning Man, 144–45.

150 “Dismiss it then from your mind”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 290.

151 He “staggered under the blow”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 145.

151 “quite ill”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. III, 259.

151 “divine authorization”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 145.

151 “Painting has been a smiling mistress”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 31.

151 He must attend to one thing: Ibid., Vol. I, 3.

151 The apparatus he had devised: Ibid., Vol. II, 38–39.

151 “so rude”: Ibid., 42.

151 His chief problem: Ibid., 54–55.

151 By increasing the power: Silverman, Lightning Man, 160.

152 A physician from Boston: Ibid., 153, 156.

152 “mutual discovery”: Ibid., 156.

152 “I cannot conceive of”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 380.

152 And for this reason: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. VI, 43.

152 Morse sent a preliminary request: Silverman, Lightning Man, 159, 161, 163, 164.

152 In a larger space: Ibid., 165–66.

152 “write at a distance”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 337.

152 They set up their apparatus: Silverman, Lightning Man, 168, 169.

153 The wonder of Morse’s invention: Ibid., 169.

153 Yet Morse felt he must have government support: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 92.

153 “The ground of objection”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 358.

153 Paris was to treat him better: Ibid., 360.

153 For the sake of economy: Ibid., 362.

153 “great inventors who are generally permitted”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 107.

153 “levee day”: Ibid., 107.

154 “the grand exhibitor”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 362.

154 I explained the principles: Ibid., 362.

154 “So you want to be an artist?”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 34–35.

155 “wonderful discovery”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 188.

155 “He gave it a thorough examination”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 363.

155 “My present instrument”: Ibid., 363.

155 The savants of the Académie convened: Silverman, Lightning Man, 179.

155 “in the midst of the most celebrated”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 365.

155 There was not a familiar face: Ibid., 364–65.

155 “A buzz of admiration”: Ibid., 365.

155 The event was acclaimed in the Paris: Silverman, Lightning Man, 179.

155 Comptes Rendus: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 366.

156 “transcends all yet made known”: Ibid., 368.

156 “another revolution is at hand”: Ibid., 369.

156 I do not doubt: Ibid.

156 “In being abroad”: Ibid., 368.

156 “most flattering”: Ibid., 370.

156 “Everything moves at a snail’s pace”: Ibid., 371.

156 “Dilatoriness”: Ibid., 374.

157 “There is more of the ‘go-ahead’ ”: Ibid., 377.

157 By March: Silverman, Lightning Man, 189.

157 paid a visit to Monsieur Louis Daguerre: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 389–90.

157 “I am told every hour”: Ibid., 388.

157 Skilled in theatrical lighting: Ibid., 15–17.

157 “flocking”: Ibid., 18.

158 “We cannot sufficiently urge”: Ibid.

158 Years before: Silverman, Lightning Man, 189.

158 “one of the most beautiful discoveries”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 129.

158 They are produced on a metallic: Gernsheim and Gernsheim, L. J. M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype, 89.

158 Morse stayed: Ibid., 90.

159 Morse’s account of his visit: Ibid., 129.

159 Once Morse arrived back in New York: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 394.

159 “throughout the United States your name”: Gernsheim and Gernsheim, L. J. M. Daguerre: The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype, 129.

159 With help from a professor of chemistry: Ibid., 132.

159 Four years later, in July of 1844: Galignani’s Messenger, July 12, 1844.

159 “What hath God wrought!”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 222.

160 Democratic National Convention: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 497.

160 “This is indeed the annihilation”: Galignani’s Messenger, July 12, 1844.

160 Coinciding with all this excitement: Starr, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 59.

160 With a genius for publicity: Saxon, P. T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, 9.

161 “The people like to be humbugged”: New York Times, November 9, 2007.

161 a child from Bridgeport, Connecticut: Saxon, P. T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, 123–24.

161 He was perfectly formed: Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs of Forty Years’ Recollections of P. T. Barnum, 16.

161 “for the opportunity”: Ibid., 135.

161 He paid the boy’s parents: Ibid., 163.

161 “to test the curiosity”: Ibid., 165.

161 “decided hit”: Ibid., 173.

161 before Her Majesty Queen Victoria: Ibid., 176–77.

161 “The French are exceedingly impressionable”: Ibid., 192.

161 He settled Tom: Ibid., 188–89.

162 Yet Tom Thumb: Ibid., 193.

162 Tom came attired: New York Commercial Advertiser, April 26, 1845.

162 “apt pupil”: Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs of Forty Years’ Recollections of P. T. Barnum, 164.

162 When a lady: New York Commercial Advertiser, April 26, 1845.

162 The king asked: Ibid., April 16, 1845.

162 Tom performed an original dance: Ibid., April 26, 1845.

163 Reportedly the wardrobe: Ibid.

163 “FOR A SHORT TIME ONLY”: Galignani’s Messenger, March 24, 1845.

163 The grace, readiness: Ibid., March 27, 1845.

163 Shop windows: Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs of Forty Years’ Recollections of P. T. Barnum, 193.

163 So great was the attendance: Ibid., 193.

163 The pale, slender: Starr, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 59–60.

164 The boy had been born: Ibid., 15, 24, 21, 29, 33, 45.

164 One immensely wealthy young woman: Ulrich Leben and Robert McDonald Parker, The American Ambassador’s Residence in Paris, Special Issue of Connaissance des Arts (Paris: SFPA, 2007), 10–11.

164 Young Moreau was enrolled: Starr, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, 46.

165 “This child is surprising”: Ibid., 48, 49.

165 Moreau had been in Paris three years: Ibid., 59.

165 According to one study: Ibid., 50.

165 Chopin outshone them all: Ibid., 55.

165 His debut at the Salle Pleyel: Ibid., 59.

166 “Good, my child”: Ibid., 60.

166 “the neatness and elegance of his playing”: Le Courrier de la Louisiane, May 17, 1845.

166 “chiefly to the upper ranks”: Ibid.

166 Midway into April: Galignani’s Messenger, April 17, 1845.

166 Besides the more than five hundred paintings: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, Vol. II, 211.

166 Catlin’s story: See generally, Obituary, New York Times, December 24, 1872, and William Dunlap, “Mr. Catlin’s Lectures,” NewYork Mirror, October 14, 1837.

166 “a whole lifetime of enthusiasm”: Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 30.

167 “a vast country of green fields”: Ibid., 40.

167 “the proud and heroic elegance”: Ibid., 28.

167 “rescue from oblivion”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, Vol. I, 217.

167 In 1839 he offered: Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 63.

167 The paintings went on display: Ibid., 65–66, 69.

168 The servants in the house: Ibid., 206.

168 “There was a great outcry”: Ibid., 207.

168 “My father”: Ibid., 208.

168 Others in the delegation included: Galignani’s Messenger, April 17, 1845.

168 “of fine stature”: Ibid.

169 While the Indians continued their sightseeing: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 205.

169 “No tragedian ever trod the stage”: Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 157.

170 all with their wampum: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, Vol. II, 211.

170 “in the most free and familiar manner”: Ibid.

170 “Tell these good fellows”: Ibid., 212.

170 In the winter of 1797–98: Dippie, Catlin and His Contemporaries: The Politics of Patronage, 120.

170 “This,” wrote Catlin: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 212.

171 With ceremony befitting a head of state: Ibid., 212–14.

171 “and sounding the frightful war-whoop”: Ibid., 215.

172 “the most magnificent place God ever prepared”: Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I, 24.

172 “energy of character and skill”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 319.

172 In the midst of such reflections: Ibid., 320.

173 “crowds of savants”: Galignani’s Messenger, May 24, 1845.

173 “drawing full and fashionable”: Ibid., May 30, 1845.

173 “wild America” and “natural man”: Sand, “Relation d’un Voyage Chez les Sauvages de Paris,” Le Diable à Paris: Paris et Les Parisiens, 205–207.

173 Delacroix was among: Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 75.

173 At first, I felt: Sand, Le Diable à Paris: Paris et Les Parisiens, 205.

174 The carefree Parisian audience: Ibid.

174 “the proud, free character”: Gurney and Heyman, eds., George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, 235.

174 “one of the most curious collections”: Constitutionnel, June 22, 1845.

175 Seeing the collection: Observateur, October 9, 1845.

175 “remarkable power”: Moniteur Industriel, November 16, 1845.

175 Little Wolf, shattered, “heartbroken”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 272.

175 Chopin mentioned her in a letter: Chopin, Chopin’s Letters, 287.

175 “her feeble form wasted away”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 276.

175 In the midst of his grief: Ibid., 277–80.

176 Still more acclaim followed: Ibid., 285, 293.

176 Ever the showman: Saxon, P. T. Barnum: The Legend and the Man, 143.

176 Moreau Gottschalk, who grew: Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. IV, 442.

176 “retired”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 311.

176 “I thus painted on”: Ibid., 312.

176 Catlin’s Indian exhibition: Dippie, Catlin and His Contemporaries: The Politics of Patronage, 125.

177 Before leaving Paris: Truettner, The Natural Man Observed: A Study of Catlin’s Indian Gallery, 53.

177 “My occupation was changed”: Catlin, The Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians, 323.

177 By the time Healy returned: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 165–66.

6. Change at Hand

The correspondence of a diplomat serving abroad is necessarily of two kinds, official and private. In the case of Richard Rush, his extensive correspondence, all in his own hand, is divided. The official communications with Washington are at the National Archives, his private or personal letters at the Library of Congress.

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179 How then can strangers: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 462.

179 “increased a hundred fold”: Willson, America’s Ambassadors to France (1777–1927), 218.

179 “daily fire”: Ibid.

179 In a long career in public service: Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. III, pt. 2, 231–33.

180 was still impressively handsome: See Sparks, “Political Portraits with Pen and Pencil: Richard Rush,” United States Magazine, Vol. VII (1840).

180 On the afternoon of July 31: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 303.

180 “sufficiently grand”: Richard Rush to his sons, September 20, 1847, Richard Rush Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

180 I am representing a great nation: Richard Rush to his son, October 6, 1847, Richard Rush Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

181 Last night we were at Mr. Walsh’s: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 336–37.

181 “the appearance of things”: Richard Rush to James Buchanan, September 24, 1847, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

182 “loose thoughts”: Ibid.

182 “They are thrown out”: Ibid.

182 “decamp”: Cooper, Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Vol. V, 313.

182 “serious troubles”: Ibid., 240.

182 “profound and universal”: Galignani’s Messenger, January 6, 1848.

182 “Notwithstanding all the reform banquets”: Richard Rush to James Buchanan, January 22, 1848, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

182 “We are sleeping on a volcano”: Mansel, Paris Between Empires: Monarchy and Revolution, 1814–1852, 397.

182 “formidable”: Richard Rush to his sons, February 20, 1848, Richard Rush Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

183 We were too near to be pleasant: Baker, Richard Morris Hunt, 41.

183 “I have seen enough blood”: Howarth, Citizen King: The Life of Louis-Philippe, 319.

183 The poor King and his government: Ibid., 334.

184 “general confusion[and]uncertainty”: Richard Rush to James Buchanan, February 24, 1848, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

184 “moderation and magnanimity”: Richard Rush to James Buchanan, March 4, 1848, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

184 “The responsibilities of my public station”: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 366.

184 “But the French people were themselves”: Ibid., 367.

185 “Was it for me to be backward when France”: Ibid., 368.

185 As representative of the United States: Galignani’s Messenger, March 1, 1848.

185 “full and unqualified approbation”: Message from the President of the United States, April 3, 1848, Executive No. 32, U.S. Senate, 30th Cong., 1st sess.

185 “wonderfully, miraculously tranquil”: Richard Rush to George Bancroft, March 24, 1848, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

186 “very civil and good tempered”: Emerson, The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Sealts, Vol. X, 270–71.

186 “criminal excesses”: Galignani’s New Paris Guide, 15th edition, 1827.

186 They did not and could not employ: Richard Rush to James Buchanan, July 3, 1848, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

187 “On his way he passed my door”: Ibid.

187 “So vast and horrible a desolation”: New York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1848.

187 “ beautifulrevolution”: Saul K. Padover, Karl Marx: An Intimate Biography (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978), 252.

187 “battlefield”: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 449.

187 “Scattered wisps of hay”: Ibid., 450.

187 None can understand a country: Ibid., 461–62.

188 Of the more than seven million votes cast: Mansel, Paris Between Empires: Monarchy and Revolution, 1814–1852, 414.

188 “species”: Fuller, At Home and Abroad, 250.

188 He comes abroad: Ibid., 250–51.

189 “instinctively bustling”: Ibid.

189 “thinking American”: Ibid., 252.

189 [He]recognized the immense advantage: Ibid.

189 “passably pretty ladies with excessively”: Fuller, New York Tribune, May 12, 1847.

189 The air, half military, half dandy: Ibid.

190 I saw them and touched them: Ibid.

190 “takes rank in society like a man”: Fuller, The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. IV, 256.

190 “brilliant shows”: Ibid., 259.

190 “It is too plain that you should conquer”: Ibid.

191 “If that is a painting”: See biographical sketch of “William Morris Hunt” in American National Biography, ed. Garraty and Carnes (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 397.

191 shared a bright, fifth-floor apartment: The building where the Hunt brothers lived at 1 rue Jacob still stands.

191 “Mr. William Hunt is our most”: Thomas Gold Appleton to his father, December 22, 1852, Massachusetts Historical Society.

191 “with a very slender purse”: Blackwell, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, 2.

192 “either mad or bad”: See biographical sketch of Elizabeth Blackwell in Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. I, 320.

192 “not constituted”: Blackwell, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women. See Introduction by Amy Sue Bix, 24.

192 “the aspect of a great moral”: Ibid., 76.

192 She was twenty-eight: Passport application, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

193 “sage-femme-in-chief”: Blackwell, Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women, 161.

193 “So send a welcome greeting”: Ibid., 165.

193 Imagine a large square of old: Ibid.

193 “all pretty and pleasant”: Ibid., 163.

193 “eaten in haste”: Ibid., 167.

193 “a little deformed woman, elderly”: Ibid., 161.

194 “en service”: Ibid., 168.

194 “If they answer promptly and well”: Ibid.

194 Alternately satirical and furious: Ibid., 169.

194 “seeing all that was remarkable”: Ibid., 180.

194 “How kind everybody was!”: Ibid., 188.

194 “Yet the medical experience was”: Ibid., 186.

195 “I am a native of the state of Kentucky”: Farrison, William Wells Brown: Author and Reformer, 140.

195 “we shall break … in pieces every yoke”: Ibid., 150.

196 “freely”: Ibid.

196 Curious to know more about him: Ibid., 151.

196 “It is with great concern”: Alexis de Tocqueville to Richard Rush, Paris, June 27, 1849, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

197 “Liberty and Union, now and forever”: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 169.

197 According to a pamphlet: Voss, “Webster Replying to Hayne: George Healy and the Economics of History Painting,” American Art, Vol. XV, no. 3 (Fall 2001), 40.

197 “my big picture”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 166.

198 Healy put the final touches: Webster’s Reply to Hayne still hangs in the place of honor at Faneuil Hall.

198 “It was a proud moment that”: Boston Transcript, September 22, 1851.

198 The countenance—an admirable likeness: New York Times, October 13, 1851.

198 “We must answer decidedly”: Voss, “Webster Replying to Hayne: George Healy and the Economics of History Painting,” 48.

199 “However onerous to an artist”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 166.

199 “a very castle of a man”: Memorial of James Fenimore Cooper, 7.

199 Irving was one of those notables: Ibid., 12.

199 “I never met with a more”: Ibid., 36.

7. A City Transformed

Often it is the secondary characters in events of the past, like secondary characters in the theater, who have the most pertinent or entertaining observations to contribute. This is certainly the case with the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe and what he wrote about their time together in Paris. Harriet Beecher Stowe in Europe, The Journal of Charles Beecher, is pure delight and certainly confirms that she was not the only one in the family with talent. Likewise, the chronicle of Napoleon III and his Empress would not be the same absent all that is unfolded by their American dentist Thomas W. Evans in his book The Second French Empire.

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201 At last I have come: Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, Vol. II, 158.

201 “sleepwalker”: Horne, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871, 21.

201 Victor Hugo, on the other hand: Ridley, Napoleon III and Eugénie, 225.

201 The British ambassador was “charmed”: Gooch, The Second Empire, 17.

201 Richard Rush found the president: Rush, Occasional Productions, Political, Diplomatic, and Miscellaneous, 514.

201 William C. Rives of Virginia: William Rives to Secretary of State Clayton, November 14, 1849, Library of Congress.

202 “He was very much better”: Gooch, The Second Empire, 305.

202 As a private person: Ibid., 305.

202 “His vulgar pleasures”: Ibid.

202 To Evans, the president: Evans, Memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans: The Second French Empire, 3.

202 “extraordinary self-control”: Ibid., 7.

202 “My power is in an immortal name”: Gooch, The Second Empire, 12.

203 Like Louis-Philippe: Evans, Memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans: The Second French Empire, 3, 7.

203 “Do you forget my years of study”: Gooch, The Second Empire, 11.

203 Then in 1846 he shaved off: Ibid., 71.

203 “It stands for order”: Ibid., 15.

204 The air was “soft and hazy”: New York Times, November 6, 1851.

204 They eat, drink: Ibid.

204 There were, however, Evans later wrote: Evans, Memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans, 6.

204 At a formal reception: Ibid.

204 “Rubicon”: Ridley, Napoleon III and Eugénie, 295.

205 In a matter of hours: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress: The Adventures of Dr. Tom Evans in Gas-Lit Paris, 20–21.

205 The American minister, William Rives: Secretary of State Daniel Webster to William Rives, January 12, 1852, Webster, The Papers of Daniel Webster, Diplomatic Papers, Vol. 2, 1850–1852, 186.

205 “Napoleon the Little”: Gooch, The Second Empire, 2.

205 The author of this crime: Ibid., 284.

206 To a large part of the nation: Carmona, Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris, 179–80.

206 He put a new prefect of the Seine: Gooch, The Second Empire, 200.

206 “according to their degree of urgency”: Carmona, Haussmann: His Life and Times, and the Making of Modern Paris, 9.

206 “demolition artist”: Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City, 305.

207 “I could never forget”: Carmona, Haussmann, 298.

207 Haussmann was vigorous: Jordan, Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann, 50.

207 With its population now more than a million: Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City, 297.

207 The plan was to improve public health: Ibid., 301.

208 Streets and boulevards would be lined: Ibid., 313.

208 The emperor directed: Ibid.; Horne, The Fall of Paris, 23.

208 “At every step is visible”: Levenstein, Seductive Journey: American Tourists in France from Jefferson to the Jazz Age, 87.

208 Les Halles, a great new central market: Jones, Paris: The Biography of a City, 316.

209 “Is there not something”: Lytton, The Parisians, 107.

209 In the twists and curves: Ibid., 107.

209 By 1869 some 2.5 billion: Korn, History Builds the Town, 62.

209 “When building flourishes”: Shapiro, Housing the Poor of Paris: 1850–1902, 33.

209 Acting on “inside” information: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 69–75.

210 “floating palaces”: New York Times, October 12, 1854.

210 The Arctic: Shaw, The Sea Shall Embrace Them: The Tragic Story of the Steamship Arctic, 25.

210 “God grant the time”: New York Times, October 12, 1854.

211 Two years later, in the spring of 1853: Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, 233.

211 Over half a million British women: Ibid., 244.

212 “a saint”: Fields, Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 154.

212 They crossed on the steamship Canada: Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, 233.

212 “At last I have come into a dreamland”: Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, Vol. II, 158.

212 “a little bit of a woman”: Hedrick, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life, 244.

212 Hatty was a natural “observer”: Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe in Europe: The Journal of Charles Beecher, 163.

213 “My spirits always rise”: Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, Vol. II, 164.

213 Whole families come, locking up their door: Ibid., 153.

213 There were grayheaded old men: Ibid.

214 “All is vivacity”: Ibid., 147.

214 Seeing the emperor: Ibid., 182.

214 “talked away, right and left”: Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe in Europe, 155.

214 “Poor Hatty!”: Ibid., 156–57.

214 “very touching”: Ibid., 165.

214 Surely the “life artery”: Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, Vol. II, 149.

214 “And there is no scene”: Ibid.

215 As the instinct: Ibid.

215 “sublimity”: Ibid., 150.

215 “rules of painting”: Ibid., 157.

215 He chooses simple: Ibid., 161.

215 “the great, joyous”: Ibid.

215 Like Shakespeare: Ibid., 163.

216 “glorious enough”: Ibid., 160.

216 “painted with dry eyes”: Ibid.

216 “driest imitation”: Ibid., 165.

216 that passion for the outward: Ibid., 167.

217 I gazed until all surrounding: Ibid., 152.

217 “who had not seen human life”: Ibid., 166.

217 “With all New England’s earnestness”: Ibid., 392.

218 “One in whom”: Ibid.

218 “The splendor of Paris”: Hawthorne, The French and Italian Notebooks, ed. Woodson, 13.

218 The emperor deserved great credit: Ibid., 15.

219 “Perhaps never before”: New York Times, October 29, 1855.

219 When Queen Victoria: Ibid., September 14, 1855.

220 American visitors, however, were delighted: New York Tribune, August 23, 1855.

220 Of the 796 French artists: The Crayon, September 12, 1855.

220 Among them were William Morris Hunt: Ibid., November 5, 1855.

220 William B. Ogden: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 57.

220 I had often thought of returning: Ibid., 57–88.

221 He was small: Walker, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 24.

221 Much of his boyhood: Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, 4–10.

221 At sixteen, like his father: Ibid., 16.

221 The only course: Ibid., 17, 19.

221 “Had silicon been a gas”: Ibid., 24.

221 Nor would his “peculiar” hat: Pennell and Pennell, Life of James McNeill Whistler, Vol. I, 5.

222 He did, however, take up with: Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, 52.

222 “the universal harmonizer”: Walker, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 95.

222 “I don’t think he stayed long”: Pennell and Pennell, Life of James McNeill Whistler, Vol. I, 51.

222 “His genius, however”: Ibid., 52.

222 “Everything he enjoyed”: Ibid., 69.

222 He left owing Monsieur Lalouette: Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, 58.

223 “For heaven’s sake”: Thomas Appleton to his father, October 31, 1846, Massachusetts Historical Society.

223 “I think slavery a sin”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 112.

223 The first news of the savage physical attack: Galignani’s Messenger, June 9, 1856.

223 The assault had taken place: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 292–97.

223 “The Crime against Kansas”: Ibid., 283.

223 Like Webster’s reply to Hayne: Ibid.

224 “harlot slavery”: Ibid., 285.

224 An incensed congressman: Ibid., 289–90.

224 He chose the cane: Ibid., 291.

224 “wrest”: Ibid.

224 It was early afternoon: Ibid., 291–97.

224 “Mr. Sumner”: Ibid., 294.

224 Sumner’s desk: Ibid., 294–95. The fact that the desk would have been screwed to the floor was verified by the Senate Curator’s Office in Washington, D.C.

225 “thirty first-rate”: Ibid., 295.

225 “I wore my cane out”: Ibid.

225 “an oppressive sense of weight”: White, “Was Charles Sumner Shamming, 1856–1869?” New England Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 3 (September 1960), 307.

225 Sumner departed New York: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 520.

226 To look at Mr. Sumner now: New York Tribune, April 11 and 13, 1857.

226 “The sea air, or seasickness”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 530.

226 “Civilization seemed to abound”: Ibid., 530.

226 “sallied forth”: Ibid.

226 “The improvements are prodigious”: Ibid.

227 From his “beautiful apartment”: Ibid.

227 “He did not disguise”: Ibid., 531.

227 “With a people so changeable”: Ibid., 538.

227 “He speaks of the emperor”: Ibid., 535.

228 “they call it la grippe ”: Ibid., 525.

228 “very gay and beautiful”: Ibid., 526.

228 “I tremble for Kansas”: Ibid.

228 Young Henry James: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 347.

228 At one evening affair: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 539.

228 At two other gatherings: Ibid., 538–39.

228 He visited the Imperial Library: Ibid., 539.

228 He made a return visit: Ibid., 540.

228 “I dine out very often”: Thomas Appleton to his father, December 22, 1852, Massachusetts Historical Society.

229 One evening it was an American naval officer: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 540.

229 “although apparently functionally sound”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 275.

229 “vileness and vulgarity”: Ibid., 276.

230 When several doctors advised: Ibid., 561.

230 Charles Edward Brown-Séquard: Ibid., 336–37.

230 “a bold experimenter”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 563.

230 The cure the doctor recommended: Ibid., 338.

230 “The doctor is clear”: Ibid., 565.

231 “baseless theory”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 340.

231 From what is known: See ibid., 336–42.

231 “cruel treatment”: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 565.

231 When in August: Galignani’s Messenger, August 22, 1858.

231 “At this moment my system”: Prime, The Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, 600.

232 “the utmost enthusiasm”: New York Times, September 9, 1858.

232 Of the eighty gentlemen: Galignani’s Messenger, August 22, 1858.

232 “Every figure of rhetoric”: Silverman, Lightning Man, 376.

232 “benefactor of mankind”: Report on the Dinner Given by Americans in Paris, August 17th at the “Trois Frères” to Professor S. F. B. Morse in Honor of His Invention of the Telegraph and on the Occasion of Its Completion Under the Atlantic Ocean, 40.

232 He was to be awarded: Silverman, Lightning Man, 376.

233 I seize the moment: Sumner, Works of Charles Sumner, Vol. IV, 410.

233 “no great cause for despondency”: Galignani’s Messenger, September 11, 1858.

233 He was determined: Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Vol. III, 570.

233 “If anybody cares to know”: Ibid., 591.

233 In the last few days: Ibid., 592.

234 “dear old Sumner”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 288.

234 He walks on those great long legs: Ibid.

234 “sat to the artist”: Eliot, Abraham Lincoln: An Illustrated Biography, 99.

234 “She complains of my ugliness”: Healy, Reminiscences of a Portrait Painter, 69.

234 “to hide my horrible”: Ibid., 70.

235 “a Northern man”: Ibid., 68.

235 “heart and soul”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, 323.

235 In Paris the April weather: Galignani’s Messenger, April 5, April 20, April 23, 1861.

235 Wagner’s Tannhäuser: Galignani’s Messenger, March 15 and 27, 1861.

235 Longfellow’s Hiawatha: New York Tribune, April 1, 1861.

236 With great military pageantry: Galignani’s Messenger, April 4, 1861.

236 “deep mourning”: Ibid.

236 Demolition for the “prolongation”: Ibid., April 16, 1861.

236 “telegraphic dispatches”: Ibid., April 27, 1862.

236 “The Civil War in the States”: Ibid., April 28, 1861.

236 “in a frantic state of excitement”: Ibid.

236 We who are residing: New York World, April 28, 1861.

8. Bound to Succeed

The most valuable account of the life of Augustus Saint-Gaudens is his own autobiography, his Reminiscences in two volumes, compiled in the last years of his life with the help of his son Homer. Virtually all that he had to relate was either dictated to Homer or recorded by phonograph. Much that he did not cover, or that needed editorial explanation, Homer supplied. There is admirable candor and absence of pretension throughout, as characteristic of the man, and much that is particularly appealing concerns his student years in New York and Paris, along with generous samplings from the reminiscences of such lifelong friends as Alfred Garnier and Paul Bion.

Two subsequent biographies are Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Era by Louise Hall Tharp (1969) and Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus SaintGaudens by Burke Wilkinson (1985).

As an illustrated guide to the life and works, nothing surpasses August SaintGaudens, 1848–1907, A Master of American Sculpture, published by the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, and the Musée National de la Coopération Franco-Américain, Château de Blérancourt. Its detailed chronology is a resource to be found nowhere else.

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239 I was chiefly impressed: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 87.

239 Augustus Saint-Gaudens came to Paris: Ibid., 52.

239 He was nineteen years old: Ibid., 61.

239 I walked with my heavy carpet bag: Ibid., 62.

240 His French father: Ibid., 37.

240 “sicker than a regiment”: Ibid., 61–62.

240 Gus, as he was known: Ibid., 9.

240 In New York, after a struggle: Ibid., 12.

240 The sign read french ladies’ boots: Ibid., 16.

240 At home the father addressed: Ibid.

240 “sweet Irish brogue”: Ibid., 18.

240 “picturesque personality”: Ibid., 16.

240 “typical long”: Ibid., 11.

241 “heroic charges”: Ibid., 20.

241 “through my fault”: Ibid.

241 “one long imprisonment”: Ibid., 22.

241 “the delights” of Robinson Crusoe: Ibid., 24.

241 His father apprenticed him: Ibid., 32, 38.

241 “a miserable slavery”: Ibid., 28–39.

241 “When he was not scolding me”: Ibid., 38.

241 “Sculptured heads”: Scientific American, November 6, 1847.

242 The success of a cameo: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 37.

242 The apprenticeship with Avet: Ibid., 43.

242 The boy refused: Ibid.

242 He later spoke: Ibid.

242 He went to work for another: Ibid., 44.

242 “I became a terrific worker”: Ibid., 45.

242 Indeed, I became so exhausted: Ibid., 45–46.

243 Once, from an open window: Ibid., 41.

243 “Grant himself”: Ibid., 42.

243 “entirely out of proportion”: Ibid.

243 One day during the Draft Riots: Ibid., 50.

243 Like many parents, Eakins’s father: Kirkpatrick, Revenge of Thomas Eakins, 49.

244 an “interminable” line: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 51.

244 “full sympathy with the Rebellion”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, Vol. II, 248.

244 That was well known: Ibid.

244 A Confederate mission: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress: The Adventures of Dr. Tom Evans in Gas-Lit Paris, 83.

244 The one time when the “excitement”: Galignani’s Messenger, June 21, 1864.

245 The painter Édouard Manet: See Sloane, “Manet and History,” Art Quarterly, Vol. XIV, no. 2 (Summer 1951), 93–95.

245 According to one journal: Galignani’s Messenger, June 23, 1864.

245 “In his spare but strong-knit”: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 373.

245 “took long walks”: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 60–61.

246 “always the triste undertone”: Ibid., 129.

246 Before leaving for Paris: Ibid., 361.

246 He considered a pencil portrait: Ibid., 25.

246 “bad straits”: Ibid., 62.

246 “cheaper to cheaper”: Ibid., 63.

246 “miserably poor”: Ibid.

246 “dwell on the ugly side”: Ibid., 62.

246 We worked in a stuffy: Ibid., 69.

247 The theme was “objects for the improvement”: King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism, 194.

247 At the time of the official opening: Galignani’s Messenger, April 2, 1867.

247 People were calling it: New York Times, May 10, 1867.

247 “At the Grand Hôtel they were”: Ibid., June 17, 1867.

248 “Paris is now the great center”: Morse, Samuel F. B. Morse: His Letters and Journals, Vol. II, 454.

248 The favorite American import: Kirkpatrick, The Revenge of Thomas Eakins, 98.

248 Travel was a “wild novelty”: Twain, Innocents Abroad, 645.

248 They “deceive and defraud”: Ibid., 123.

248 “I knew by their looks”: Ibid., 151.

249 The idea of it is to dance: Ibid., 136.

249 “the beautiful city”: Ibid., 151.

249 The most admiring crowds: See Blake, ed., Report of the U.S. Commissioners to the Paris Exposition, 1867, Vol. I, 12; FitzWilliam Sargent to his mother, June 12, 1867, Archives of American Art.

249 “M. Homer ought not”: Simpson, Winslow Homer: Paintings of the Civil War, 258.

250 “I am working hard”: Cikovsky and Kelly, Winslow Homer, 191.

250 A painting by Homer: Adler, Americans in Paris, 1860–1900, 245.

250 It was a small bronze, a standing figure: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 184.

251 Further, on July 2, word reached: Galignani’s Messenger, July 2, 1867.

251 The great majority: Ibid.

251 “The United States, having astonished”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, Vol. I, 35.

252 The famous couturier: Latour, Kings of Fashion, 83.

252 Bringing one lady: McCullough, The Great Bridge, 166.

252 “waiting for ladies’ dresses”: Adams, The Letters of Henry Adams, ed. J. C. Levenson, Vol. I, 546.

252 “hordes of low Germans”: Ibid., 547.

252 Dr. Thomas Evans regularly supplied: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 77.

252 One resident American in Paris: Ibid., 78–79.

253 I was obliged: De Hegermann-Lindencrone, In the Courts of Memory, 1858–1875, 96.

253 “The American flag is freely displayed”: FitzWilliam Sargent to his mother, June 12, 1867, Archives of American Art.

253 “Lincoln’s portrait”: Ibid.

253 “He sketches quite nicely”: Mary Sargent to her mother from Nice, October 20, 1867.

254 When a formal notification: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 73–74.

254 “the triumphant one”: Ibid., 74.

254 “with little, intelligent black eyes”: Ibid.

254 But Jouffroy’s compliments: Ibid., 77.

254 At a student party: Ibid., 77–78.

254 “I was finally admitted”: Ibid., 78.

254 “amorous adventure”: Ibid., 63.

254 “keep company”: Ibid.

255 But so “soaring”: Ibid., 79.

255 “Spartan-like superiority”: Ibid.

255 “possessing so strongly”: Ibid., 87.

255 “the most joyous creature”: Ibid.

255 “crazy about wrestling”: Ibid., 84.

255 “Five minutes after we reached”: Ibid., 88.

255 “Nobody got his money’s worth”: Ibid.

256 “singing and whistling”: Ibid., 61.

256 Conceive an idea: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 19.

256 You can do anything you please: Ibid., Vol. I, 166–67.

256 “There was a real Egyptian sky”: McCullough, The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914, 54.

257 “keeping up with the Joneses”: Singley, ed., Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth: A Casebook, 4.

257 “deepest scorn”: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 79.

257 “Then,” remembered Alfred Garnier: Ibid., 93.

257 The audience poured out: Ibid.; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 37.

258 “No language can measure”: Elihu Washburne to U. S. Grant, July 20 and 27, 1870, Grant, The Papers of U. S. Grant, ed. John Y. Simon, Vol. XX, 255.

259 “as fine as I ever saw”: Sheridan, The Personal Memoirs of Philip Henry Sheridan, General, United States, Vol. II, 450.

259 “No person not in Paris”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, Vol. I, 65.

259 “covered it all over”: Ibid., 58.

259 On September 2 came the ultimate: Horne, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871, 324; Elihu Washburne Diary, September 3, 1870, Library of Congress.

259 More than 104,000 of the emperor’s troops: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 52.

260 “Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and his dynasty”: Marzials, Life of Léon Gambetta, 67.

260 “I am rejoiced beyond expression”: Elihu Washburne to his brother William, September 7, 1870, Library of Congress.

260 “So perishes a harlequin”: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 258.

260 France, or at least Paris: Ibid.

260 “I yield to force”: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 117.

261 She hurried down the long Grande Galerie: Ibid., 118.

261 “smiles everywhere, people dressed”: Higonnet, Paris: Capital of the World, 289.

261 The house he and his wife, Agnes: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 73.

262 He wasted no time: Ibid., 107.

262 On a flat stretch of open land: Ibid., 108.

262 “We were thoroughly impressed”: Evans, Memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans, 305.

263 At five o’clock he knocked: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 122.

263 Evans appealed to an English yachtsman: Ibid., 127.

263 “I am heart and soul”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Mrs. Whittlesey, September 17, 1870, Dartmouth College Special Collections, Hanover, N.H.

263 “in utter confusion and dust”: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 101.

263 “They seemed to me like so many”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Mrs. Whittlesey, September 17, 1870, Dartmouth College Special Collections, Hanover, N.H.

264 “in terrible grief”: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 40.

264 “Je suis persuadé”: Saint-Gaudens, The Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 94.

264 “But they are getting old”: Ibid., 99.

9. Under Siege

Elihu Washburne’s extraordinary Paris diary has until now been overlooked beyond the Washburne family for the reason that its daily entries were written on separate sheets of paper from which letterpress copies were made; and these were later mixed in among his regular correspondence in the bound volumes deposited in 1946 at the Library of Congress.

It was the discovery of these entries during work on this book, as well as locating the original handwritten entries, bound separately as a diary, among the Washburne family collection at Livermore, Maine, that have made possible the account given in Chapters 9 and 10.

It is only in the nearly 200 diary entries (68 pages in typescript) that the full drama and detail of what Washburne experienced on the scene are to be found.

In addition, his own two-volume Recollections of a Minister to France (1887) remains a major source.

Of great value also are the contemporary accounts by three other Americans in Wickham Hoffman’s Camp, Court, and Siege: A Narrative of Personal Adventure and Observation During Two Wars (1877); Shut Up in Paris (1871) by Nathan Sheppard; and the experiences of the Moulton family in Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone’s In the Courts of Memory, 1858–1875 (1912).

Excellent historical studies are provided in The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871: A Political and Social History (1971) by Melvin Kranzberg; and From Appomattox to Montmartre by Philip Katz (1998).

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267 I shall deem it my duty: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, July 19, 1870, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 1.

267 There are no carriages: Elihu Washburne Diary, September 19, 1870, Library of Congress.

267 “Has the world ever witnessed”: Ibid.

268 The Tuileries Garden: Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871: A Political and Social History, 24.

268 “And it seems odd”: Elihu Washburne Diary, September 19, 1870, Library of Congress.

268 “It is in Paris”: Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871, 9–10.

268 “Paris, pushed to extremities”: Ibid.

268 A French tutor: Frank Moore to Mr. Ostermann, September 27, 1869, Papers of Frank Moore, NewYork Historical Society.

269 Daughter Marie would remember: Fowler, Reminiscences: My Mother and I, 28.

269 “most agreeable”: Elihu Washburne to Mr. Plummer, March 5, 1870, Library of Congress.

269 “Her tact, her grace”: Elihu Washburne to Edward Hempstead, July 14, 1870, Library of Congress.

269 At the start of summer: Elihu Washburne to C. C. Washburne, June 23, 1870, Library of Congress.

269 “picked up their hats”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 127.

269 All the rest “ran away”: Elihu Washburne Diary, September 23, 1870, Library of Congress.

269 “I thought it would be, on all accounts”: Washburne, A Biography of Elihu Benjamin Washburne: Congressman, Secretary of State, Envoy Extraordinary, Vol. IV, 379.

270 “However anxious I might be”: Elihu Washburne to Hamilton Fish, October 3, 1870, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 76.

270 Numbers of Germans were being arrested: Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871, 9–10.

271 “Employers discharged”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege: A Narrative of Personal Adventure and Observation During Two Wars: 1861–1865; 1870–1871, 153.

271 The suffering, both moral and physical: Ibid.

271 As an assistant secretary named Frank Moore: Frank Moore to his wife, Laura, September 7, 1870, Frank Moore Papers, NewYork Historical Society.

271 The American Legation: Washburne, A Biography of Elihu Benjamin Washburne, Vol. IV, 13.

271 One day a child: Elihu Washburne Diary, November 11, 1870, Library of Congress.

272 “I am depressed”: Elihu Washburne to Adele Washburne, September 2, 1870, Library of Congress.

272 Yesterday forenoon: Ibid.

272 “Everything that energy”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 154.

272 “And here let me remark”: Ibid., 154–55.

273 Raised on a farm in Maine: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn: A Chapter in American Biography, 155.

273 A judgment expressed by The Nation: Hess, “An American in Paris,” American Heritage, February 1967, 18.

273 The New York World had called him: New York World, December 12, 1868.

274 “coarse, uncultivated”: Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles, Vol. III, 551.

274 “enlarged views”: Ibid., 543.

274 “He may represent”: Ibid., 551.

274 “Our family was very, very poor”: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 158.

274 He had been born on September 23, 1816: Ibid., 155.

274 The family struggled to survive: Kelsey, Remarkable Americans: The Washburn Family, 8.

274 It would be said of the Washburn children: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 300.

275 her mind was “quick”: Ibid., 158.

275 “The foundation that is layed”: Martha Benjamin Washburn to Elihu Washburne from Livermore, Maine, March 21, 1846, Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, Livermore, Maine.

275 When I think of her labors: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 158.

275 As one of the founders of General Mills: Grossman and Jennings, Building a Business Through Good Times and Bad: Lessons From 15 Companies, Each with a Century of Dividends, 45.

275 “I dug up stumps”: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 159.

275 “more congenial”: Ibid., 160.

276 “There is no humbug”: Ibid., 163.

276 In 1839, after another two years: Ibid., 166.

276 He arrived by stern-wheeler: Elihu Washburne Diary, April 1, 1871, Library of Congress.

276 “knee deep”: Ibid.

276 “a litigious set”: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 172.

276 In less than a month: Ibid., 173.

276 In a rough, wide-open town: Ibid.

276 He liked the life: Ibid., 172.

277 In 1845, at twenty-nine: Ibid., 178.

277 “He was not under the influence”: Ibid., 179.

277 In little time: Ibid., 183.

277 He was praised: Ibid., 183, 193.

277 An Ohio newspaperman: Ibid., 192–93.

277 “blow off like a steam engine”: Ibid., 192.

277 As chairman of the Committee on Appropriations: Ibid., 183.

277 It was Israel Washburn: Ibid., 32–33.

277 It happened at about two in the morning: New York Herald, February 6, 1858; New York Times, February 8, 1858; New York Tribune, February 6, 8, 1858; Chicago Tribune, February 8, 1858.

277 “Mr. Washburne of Illinois”: New York Herald, February 6, 1858.

278 In 1860, when Lincoln ran for president: Hess, “An American in Paris,” 21.

278 On the day Lincoln stepped: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 229–30; Hess, “An American in Paris,” 21.

278 “Without doing any injustice”: Hunt, Israel, Elihu, and Cadwallader Washburn, 220.

278 The confidence Washburne placed in Grant: Ibid., 243.

279 “His life was despaired of”: Fowler, Reminiscences: My Mother and I, 23.

279 “quiet and repose”: Elihu Washburne to his sister, October 12, 1870, Library of Congress.

279 In its long history: Sibbet, Siege of Paris, 169.

279 “The weather is charming”: Elihu Washburne to Adele Washburne, September 28, 1870, Library of Congress.

279 The formal exchange: Undated news article in Elihu Washburne scrapbooks, Library of Congress.

280 On September 21, a daring balloonist: Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871, 38.

280 Eventually some sixty-five balloons: Ibid.

280 “I have never before so much”: Elihu Washburne to Adele Washburne, September 28, 1870, Library of Congress.

280 To his brother Israel in Maine: Elihu Washburne to Israel Washburn, October 21, 1870, Library of Congress.

281 “great courage and spirit”: Elihu Washburne Diary, September 30, 1870, Library of Congress.

281 In early October: Transcript of recollections by Charles William May of his balloon trip out of Paris, Manuscript Collection, Boston Athenaeum, 3.

281 But when, on the morning of October 7: Horne, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871, 85.

281 It was another perfect day: Transcript of recollections by Charles William May of his balloon trip out of Paris, Manuscript Collection, Boston Athenaeum, 7.

281 The air was clear: Ibid., 7–8.

282 So we opened the sand bag: Ibid., 8.

282 “There was no sense of motion”: Ibid.

282 “The days go and”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 189.

282 “laid by” his own sufficient stock: Ibid., 133.

282 “Were it not for Mr. Washburne”: Labouchère, Diary of a Besieged Resident in Paris, 24.

282 “cheerily shaking everyone”: Ibid., 70.

283 “The world cannot fail to admire”: Chicago Journal, no date, Elihu Washburne scrapbooks, Library of Congress.

283 “suffering … so sore I can hardly move”: Elihu Washburne Diary, October 15, 1870, Library of Congress.

283 Many people called: Ibid., October 17, 1870, Library of Congress.

283 “But Washburne”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 203.

283 “interminable gabble”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 201.

283 “a little depression”: Elihu Washburne to Israel Washburn, October 27, 1870, Library of Congress.

283 “We drove to the French”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 204.

283 While we waited: Ibid., 205.

284 On October 31, Trochu’s army: Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871, 54–55.

284 That same day: Elihu Washburne Diary, October 31, 1870, Library of Congress.

284 “marched with gigantic strides”: Ibid.

284 “People, and people”: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 120.

284 Women with big feet: Ibid., 120.

285 A tall well-bred-looking: Ibid., 122–23.

285 “They all seemed to regard”: Elihu Washburne Diary, October 31, 1870, Library of Congress.

286 “What a city!”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 211.

286 “One moment revolution”: Ibid.

286 “perfectly raving”: Ibid., 219.

286 But by this time Bismarck: Ibid., 219–20.

286 “a prodigy of strength”: Elihu Washburne Diary, November 7, 1870, Library of Congress.

286 “Indeed, the defenses all round the city”: Ibid.

286 “I do not see for the life of me”: Ibid., October 30, 1870, Library of Congress.

287 At the Louvre, where Trochu: Becker, ed., Paris Under Siege, 1870–1871: From the Goncourt Journal, 81.

287 Reportedly 50,000 horses: See estimates in Kranzberg, The Siege of Paris, 1870–1871, 46, and Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 153.

287 “The situation here is dreadful”: Elihu Washburne Diary, November 12, 1870, Library of Congress.

287 “The Prussians can’t get into”: Ibid.

287 “Nothing of interest today”: Ibid., November 22, 1870.

287 “too sober”: Ibid., November 23, 1870.

287 “Oh, for an opportunity”: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 140.

287 “One felt an intense”: Ibid., 3.

288 “furtive glances”: Ibid., 4.

288 It is the intolerable tension: Ibid., 133.

288 Anything more dreary: Labouchère, Diary of a Besieged Resident in Paris, 70.

288 An American physician: Sibbet, Siege of Paris, 262.

288 The worst of it: Ibid.

288 The American medical student Mary Putnam: Bittel, Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Politics of Medicine in Nineteenth-Century America, 79.

288 Nor had she any desire: Letter of Mary Putnam to Elihu Washburne, February 2, 1871, Library of Congress; Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 275.

289 Her chosen topic: Bittel, Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Politics of Medicine in Nineteenth-Century America, 83.

289 “It is not at all probable”: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 271.

289 And what a class: Elihu Washburne Diary, November 18, 1870, Library of Congress.

289 “The sun was just warm enough”: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 154.

290 On the contrary: Ibid.

290 Shoes were polished: Ibid., 155.

290 “They are arriving”: Elihu Washburne Diary, November 20, 1870, Library of Congress.

290 “With an improvised”: Ibid., November 27, 1870, Library of Congress.

290 The American Ambulance: Carson, The Dentist and the Empress, 108–9.

291 “Here were order”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 222.

291 “I have known”: Ibid., 225.

291 “Is it necessary”: Evans, History of the American Ambulance Corps: Established in Paris During the Siege of 1870–71, 44.

291 The surgeon general: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. I, 144.

291 Numbering the days of the siege: See daily notations in Elihu Washburne Diary, Library of Congress.

293 As he explained in a letter: Kelsey, Remarkable Americans: The Washburn Family, 218.

293 “Too much cannot be said”: New York Times, January 15, 1871.

293 Never did any population: Ibid.

293 “There is universal approbation”: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to Elihu Washburne, December 8, 1870, Library of Congress.

294 Lines formed as early as four: Galignani’s Messenger, December 27, 1870.

294 As firewood began running out: Ibid.

294 “the climax of the forlorn”: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 203.

294 “Never has a sadder Christmas”: Elihu Washburne Diary, December 25, 1870, Library of Congress.

294 The government is seizing: Ibid.

294 The bill-of-fare: Elihu Washburne Diary, December 26, 1870, Library of Congress.

295 “The French knew nothing”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege, 208.

295 The large square: Elihu Washburne Diary, December 26, 1870, Library of Congress; Elihu Washburne to his brother, December 26, 1870, Library of Congress.

295 “These people cannot freeze”: Elihu Washburne Diary, December 26, 1870, Library of Congress.

295 “The situation becomes more and more critical”: Ibid., December 28, 1870.

296 I am unfitted: Ibid.

296 “sawdust, mud, and potato skins”: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 220.

296 “downright good eating”: Ibid., 219.

296 By the second half of December: Galignani’s Messenger, December 31, 1870.

296 A rat, Sheppard was surprised to find: Sheppard, Shut Up in Paris, 165.

296 “The worst of it is”: Ibid., 197.

296 With little or nothing to feed: Galignani’s Messenger, December 18, 1870.

297 “But bah!!!”: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 277.

297 The death toll in the city: See Horne, The Fall of Paris, 221 for figure of 4,444 during the week of January 14–21.

297 “Great discontent”: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, January 2, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 118.

297 With the ground frozen: Galignani’s Messenger had ceased publication on September 19, 1870, during the siege. They resumed publication on March 10, 1871, with a day-by-day news chronology of events from September 20, 1870, to date. The entry from the weather on this day was for December 23, 1870.

298 In fact, Bismarck: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 203.

298 “At 2 P.M. I walked”: Elihu Washburne Diary, January 5, 1871, Library of Congress.

298 “Sometimes they would strike”: Olin Warner to his parents, February 20, 1871. Archives of American Art.

298 An American student from Louisville, Kentucky: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 213.

298 They carry with them: Sibbet, Siege of Paris, 335.

298 “It was singularly dramatic”: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 277.

299 “Nearly twelve days of furious bombardment”: Elihu Washburne Diary, January 16, 1871, Library of Congress.

299 “The bombardment so far”: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, January 16, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 123.

299 The total number of those killed: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 217.

299 “I am more and more convinced”: Elihu Washburne Diary, January 18, 1871, Library of Congress.

299 “The ambulances have all been notified”: Ibid.

299 The French novelist Edmond de Goncourt: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 230.

300 One hundred thousand men: Ibid.

300 They had brought in sixty-five: Elihu Washburne Diary, January 19, 1871, Library of Congress.

300 “whole country was literally covered”: Ibid.

300 “All Paris is on the qui-vive”: Ibid.

300 “trouble in the city”: Ibid., January 21, 1871.

300 “And then such a scatteration”: Ibid., January 23, 1871.

301 “‘Mischief afoot’”: Ibid., January 22, 1871.

301 “The city is on its last legs”: Ibid., January 24, 1871.

301 “‘Hail mighty day!’”: Ibid., January 27, 1871.

10. Madness

Alistair Horne’s The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871, published in 1966, remains much the most thorough and well-written history of the Commune.

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303 In the madness: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, May 2, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 193.

303 The terms of the surrender: Horne, The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune, 1870–1871, 243.

303 The cost to France: Ibid., 244.

303 By the terms of the surrender: Wawro, The Franco-Prussian War: The German Conquest of France in 1870–1871, 310.

304 “The enemy is the first to render”: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 242.

304 “France is dead!”: Ibid.

304 “Paris is trembling”: Ibid.

304 Olin Warner spoke for nearly: Olin Warner to his parents, June 6, 1871, Archives of American Art.

304 “We are all furious”: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 274.

304 “quite Parisian”: Elihu Washburne to General Read, February 25, 1871, Library of Congress.

304 “Oh, I was only a post-office”: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 171.

305 The conduct of Mr. Washburne: New York Tribune, undated news article, Elihu Washburne scrapbooks, Library of Congress.

305 “No Minister”: Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to Elihu Washburne, February 20, 1871, Library of Congress.

305 The German army marched: Galignani’s Messenger, March 10, 15, 1871.

305 The first of the conquerors: Ibid.

306 At first the troops: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 11.

306 The gas was not yet lighted: Ibid., 13.

306 “At 3 o’clock in the afternoon”: Ibid., 19.

306 Gaslights burned once more: See Galignani’s Messenger, March 5, 7, 1871.

307 In a surprise move: Ibid., March 10, 1871.

307 In an improvised mock trial: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 272.

307 The Commune, as often mistakenly assumed: Ibid., 291.

308 “culmination of every horror”: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, March 19, 1871, Library of Congress.

308 With the official government now at Versailles: Elihu Washburne to Peter [illegible], March 23, 1871, Library of Congress.

308 He was gravely worried: Elihu Washburne to his brother, March 21, 1871, Library of Congress.

308 “no law, no protection”: Elihu Washburne to Benjamin Shaw, March 30, 1871, Library of Congress.

308 On March 28, with great to-do: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, March 30, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 171–72; Horne, The Fall of Paris, 288.

309 At the same time: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, March 30, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 173.

309 Such a system of “denunciation”: Ibid.

309 His private secretary: Ibid.

309 “He is mistaken”: Elihu Washburne Diary, March 28, 1871, Library of Congress.

309 “The Commune is looming”: Ibid., March 31, 1871.

310 The morning of that same day: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 334–35.

310 “a horrid place”: Elihu Washburne Diary, April 23, 1871, Library of Congress.

310 “What mysteries”: Ibid.

310 “I want sexual promiscuity”: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 334.

310 Lillie Moulton described him: Ibid., 335.

310 “hideous” figures in history: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 192.

310 Lillie was admitted to Rigault’s office: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 335.

311 “No Elsa ever welcomed”: De Hegermann-Lindencrone, In the Courts of Memory, 1858–1875, 222.

311 On April 4, the Commune formally impeached: Galignani’s Messenger, April 7, 1871.

312 At first M. Darboy: Ibid.

312 “Big firing this morning”: Elihu Washburne Diary, April 10, 1871, Library of Congress.

312 The firing is going on all the time: Ibid., April 17, 1871, Library of Congress.

312 All is one great shipwreck: Ibid., April 19, 1871, Library of Congress.

313 When the pope’s nuncio: Elihu Washburne Diary, April 23, 1871, Library of Congress.

313 On the morning of Sunday, April 23: Ibid.

313 “So we all started off”: Ibid.

314 With his slender: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 169.

314 He seemed to appreciate his critical situation: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, April 23, 1871, Washburne, Franco-German War and the Insurrection of the Commune, Correspondence of E. B. Washburne, 188.

314 He was confined: Elihu Washburne Diary, April 23, 1871, Library of Congress.

314 When Washburne offered him any assistance: Ibid.

315 Two days later he was back: Ibid., April 25, 1871, Library of Congress.

315 “It is a little French village”: Elihu Washburne to [unknown] in Galena, Illinois, May 4, 1871, Library of Congress.

315 “I have been so run down”: Ibid.

315 Back in Paris an incident: De Hegermann-Lindencrone, In the Courts of Memory, 1858–1875, 235.

316 Mr. Moulton took the paper: Ibid., 236.

316 The Commune issued a decree: See Horne, The Fall of Paris, 349–51.

316 Hundreds of laborers: Ibid., 350.

317 The engineers had cut through: Ibid.

317 “I did not see it fall”: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 16, 1871, Library of Con- gress.

317 Writing in his diary the next day: Becker, ed., Paris Under Siege, 1870–1871: From the Goncourt Journal, 292.

318 “Today they threaten to destroy”: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 19, 1871, Library of Congress.

318 “a very delicate piece of business”: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 175.

318 On another visit to the Mazas Prison: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 19, 1871, Library of Congress.

318 “everything in a vastly different state”: Ibid., May 28, 1871.

319 “He had lost his cheerfulness”: Elihu Washburne to Dr. Henry James Anderson, January 31, 1873, Library of Congress.

319 He and Gratiot both dressed at once: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 22, 1871, Library of Congress.

320 “Everyone passing was forced”: Galignani’s Messenger, June 1, 1871.

320 “thick and fast”: Elihu Washburne to an unknown friend in Galena, Illinois, May 4, 1871, Library of Congress.

320 “5:45 P.M. Have just taken a long ride”: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 22, 1871, Library of Congress.

320 Washburne, for his part: Ibid., May 23, 1871.

321 “He[MacMahon]hopes they will”: Ibid.

321 “Tremendous[cannon]firing”: Ibid., May 24, 1871.

321 “Every woman carrying a bottle”: Hoffman, Camp, Court, and Siege: A Narrative of Personal Adventure and Observation During Two Wars: 1861–1865; 1870–1871, 282.

321 All the fighting in all the revolutions: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 24, 1871, Library of Congress.

322 Nor was it yet generally known: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 397.

323 That afternoon on the avenue d’Antin: Ibid., 392.

323 The insurgents fought on “like fiends”: Gibson, Paris During the Commune, 1871, 37.

323 “They are as they were when caught”: Becker, ed., Paris Under Siege, 1870–1871, 306.

323 There are men of the common people: Ibid.

323 On Friday, 50 prisoners: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 409.

323 On Sunday, May 28: Ibid., 413.

324 One of the most infamous: Ibid., 414.

324 “There has been nothing but general butchery”: Elihu Washburne Diary, May 29, 1871, Library of Congress.

324 “The vandalism of the dark ages”: Elihu Washburne to Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, May 31, 1871, Library of Congress.

324 The incredible enormities: Ibid.

325 Although estimates of the total carnage: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 418.

325 Olin Warner, like Washburne: “Olin Levi Warner Defense of the Paris Commune,” Archives of American Art.

325 “I hope it will never be my lot”: Olin Warner to his parents, June 6, 1871, Archives of American Art.

325 The body of the archbishop: Galignani’s Messenger, June 9, 1871.

325 one of “the most emotional and imposing” services: Washburne, Recollections of a Minister to France, 1869–1877, Vol. II, 185–86.

326 “Paris, the Paris of civilization”: Galignani’s Messenger, June 3, 1871.

326 Cook’s Tours of London: Horne, The Fall of Paris, 421.

326 By July the Tuileries Garden: Galignani’s Messenger, July 1, 1871.

326 The Venus de Milo: Ibid., June 30, August 27, 1871.

327 Everyone leaned forward: Ibid., August 27, 1871.

327 Lillie Moulton ordered several fine dresses: De Hegermann-Lindencrone, In the Courts of Memory, 1858–1875, 246.

327 Her engagement, too: Jacobi, Life and Letters of Mary Putnam Jacobi, 281.

327 “I have passed my last examination”: Ibid., 286.

327 That a woman had acquired the legal right: Ibid., 290.

328 Tributes were to be published: See various newspaper articles, editorials, and tributes in the Washburne Family Scrapbooks, Library of Congress.

328 “Speaking of diplomacy”: Diary entry of Frank Moore, Paris, September 30, 1871, Frank Moore Papers, NewYork Historical Society.

11. Paris Again

The wealth of Cassatt and Sargent family correspondence, in two collections at the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, adds enormously to an understanding of the formative years in the lives of both Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent. Dr. FitzWilliam Sargent’s letters are particularly important, given that his son John wrote so little about himself.

The best books about Mary Cassatt are those by Nancy Mowll Mathews: Cassatt and Her Circle; Selected Letters (1984); Mary Cassatt (1987); Mary Cassatt: A Life (1994); and Cassatt: A Retrospective (1996).

For Sargent, the two essential biographies are John Sargent by Evan Charteris, published in 1927, two years after Sargent’s death, and the engagingly written John Singer Sargent: His Portrait by Stanley Olson (1986). Of particular appeal, too, are the Sargent vignettes in the letters and reminiscences of his friends Will Low and James Carroll Beckwith (as cited below).

Sargent’s early work is magnificently reproduced and documented in two monumental books by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Sargent: The Early Portraits (1998), and John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1874–1882.

For a comprehensive study of American students and their atelier masters, nothing equals H. Barbara Weinberg’s The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth-Century American Painters and Their French Teachers (1991).

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331 I began to live: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 132.

331 “I have never seen”: James, Parisian Sketches: Letters to the New York Tribune, 1875–1876, 39.

331 To help meet expenses: Ibid., xiii.

331 “sense of Parisian things”: Ibid., 3.

332 “decidedly the most”: Ibid., 21.

332 “looked and looked again”: Lewis, The Jameses: A Family Narrative, 86.

332 Called The American: James, The American, 33.

332 The street was relatively quiet: Rue de Luxembourg is now rue Cambon. Author’s visit to the street and location of James’s apartment. See also James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, 3.

332 “If you were to see me”: Ibid., 6.

332 “Considering how nice”: Ibid.

333 “taken a desperate plunge”: Ibid., 20.

333 “I am waiting anxiously”: Ibid., 17.

333 “Love to all in superabundance”: James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, ed. Edel, 47.

333 He was in Paris to work: Ibid., 23.

333 “I want the biggest kind of entertainment”: James, The American, 58.

333 “What shall I tell you?”: James, Henry James Letters, Vol. II, ed. Edel, 35.

333 “The spring is now quite settled”: Ibid., 41.

333 Since the brutal catastrophes: Galignani’s Messenger, October 5, 1872.

333 In a single week: Ibid., September 21, 1872.

334 “the recipient of much attention”: Ibid., October 21, 1872.

334 It is generally acknowledged: Galignani’s Messenger, January 6, 1872.

335 Will Low, an art student: Low, A Painter’s Progress: Six Discourses Forming the Fifth Annual Series of the Scammon Lectures, Delivered Before the Art Institute of Chicago, April, 1910,146.

335 George Healy, with his wife: See George P. A. Healy to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, November 11, 1874, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to George P. A. Healy, October 19, 1874, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

335 “We can give garden parties”: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 270.

335 The Healys had been among: George P. A. Healy to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, November 5, 1872, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

336 “Healy is strong in portraits”: Thomas Gold Appleton to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, June 3, 1875, Houghton Library, Harvard University.

336 “This will be an historical picture”: “Souvenir of the Exhibition Entitled Healy’s Sitters or a Portrait Panorama of the Victorian Age,” Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 1950, 54.

336 “I go every morning”: Excerpt from the Diary of Edith Healy, Rome, October 9, 1868, Archives of American Art.

337 Mary Cassatt, too, had been hard hit: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 75.

337 In 1866, at twenty-one: Ibid., 29.

337 I think she has a great deal of talent: Eliza Haldeman to Mrs. Samuel Haldeman, May 15, 1867, Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 46.

337 “It is much pleasanter”: Ibid., 54.

338 “She is only an amateur”: Mary Cassatt to Lois Cassatt, August 1, 1869, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

338 “Oh how wild I am”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 77.

338 “The Hôtel de Ville”: Ibid., 80.

338 “Don’t be disheartened”: Emily Sartain to her father, February 26, 1872, Moore College of Art.

338 On one excursion: Ibid., August 4, 1872.

339 I must candidly confess: Galignani’s Messenger, June 22, 1872.

339 “Velázquez oh!”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 103.

339 “She astonished me”: Ibid., 124.

339 Mary Cassatt had been born: Sweet, Miss Mary Cassatt: Impressionist from Pennsylvania, 7.

339 Her father, Robert Simpson Cassatt: Ibid.

340 But the mother and father: Ibid., 18.

340 At sixteen Mary: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 14.

340 When, at twenty: Ibid., 26.

340 The summer of 1874: Ibid., 92.

341 “Miss Cassatt’s tall figure”: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 86.

341 Once having seen her: Ibid.

341 “I felt that Miss Cassatt”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 101.

341 “Miss C. is a tremendous talker”: Emily Sartain to her father, May 25, 1875, Moore College of Art.

341 Emily went home: See Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 70, n. 1.

342 “I would go there”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 114.

342 She took Louisine: Hale, Mary Cassatt, 54.

342 The price was 500 francs: Ibid.

343 To learn to paint: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 195.

343 “happy American youths”: Weinberg, The Lure of Paris: Nineteenth-Century American Painters and Their French Teachers, 199.

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.

12. The Farragut

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.

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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.

360 Soon after, Saint-Gaudens learned: See Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 162–72.

361 A sum of $9,000: See copy of contract between Saint-Gaudens and City of New York dated May 23, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

361 “I have made two models”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 163.

361 He and Gussie were married: Ibid.

361 Two days later: Ibid.

362 Gus said it was the wine: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, August 14, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

362 “I wish someone would invite”: Ibid., October 26, 1877.

362 Only think there are twenty-four families: Ibid., October 18, 1877.

362 “Aug keeps wracking”: Ibid., no date, but written from 178 boulevard Pereire, Paris, France, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

362 “While Gussie is wrestling”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Homer, September 26, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

362 “She eats more, sleeps more”: Ibid.

363 You write splendid letters: Ibid.

363 The following spring: See letter of April 22, 1878, from Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College. In the letter Gussie included a sketch of the apartment.

363 “a beautiful Japanese matting”: Ibid., May 17, 1878.

363 You have no idea: Ibid., July 25, 1878.

364 like “Cinderella”: Ibid., June 13, 1878.

364 Gus was devoted: See “Biography of Louis Saint-Gaudens—Handwritten in Pencil,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 9.

364 “He is certainly the easiest person”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, October 11 (no year), Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

364 However, I forgive you: Bernard Saint-Gaudens to Augustus and Louis Saint-Gaudens, Drafts of the “Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

365 Working as never before: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 211; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 88.

365 The new studio: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 88.

365 “by the alternate waves of exaltation”: Armstrong, Day Before Yesterday: Reminiscences of a Varied Life, 266.

365 For additional help on the Farragut: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 90.

365 “He hasn’t a cent”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Genie Emerson, September 6, 1877, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

366 Before leaving New York: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 164–65.

366 “a spur to higher endeavor”: Ibid., 161.

366 He and Saint-Gaudens had met first: Ibid., 159.

367 “devouring love of ice cream”: Ibid., 160.

367 Early in 1878, hearing that White: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 98.

367 “When you come over”: Ibid.

367 “I hope you will let me help you”: Ibid.

367 “little of the adventurous swing of life”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 244.

367 “It’s really a business trip”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, August 2, 1878, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

367 Their route was from Paris: See Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 248; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 100–101.

368 “[It]is 275 ft. long”: Baldwin, Stanford White, 79.

368 “the sound of a Beethoven”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 247.

368 Stanford White thought the portal: Baldwin, Stanford White, 81.

368 “We sat on the top row”: Ibid., 82.

368 “struck an attitude”: Ibid.

368 To commemorate the fellowship: Baker, Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White, 51.

369 Gus had “a most successful trip”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, August 16, 1878, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

369 “He is one of the nicest fellows”: Ibid., no specific date but circa August 1878.

369 “I hug S[ain]t-Gaudens like a bear”: Baker, Stanny, 53.

369 She is very kind: Ibid.

369 One night, with another gregarious American: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, January 31, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

370 “I have just taken this paper”: Ibid., postscript written by Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

370 “I am writing in the studio”: Ibid., February 12, 1879.

370 The model has just come in: Ibid.

370 “Please don’t say anything”: Ibid.

370 “Do you want to know”: White, Stanford White: Letters to His Family, 76.

370 Coffee, eggs, and oatmeal: Ibid.

371 “I am convinced”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint Gaudens, Vol. II, 60.

371 With her trouble hearing: See letters from Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, May 30, 1879, and January 8, 1870, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

371 “We went to a dancing party”: Ibid., January 13, 1879.

371 “Every time I go out”: Ibid., March 13, 1879.

372 Twain would be remembered: Baldwin, Stanford White, 95.

372 “of making one ‘see things’ ”: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 91.

372 He, in all simplicity: Ibid.

373 “I have such respect”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 166.

373 “It was all Mr. White”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, March 31, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

373 “You have no idea”: Ibid., April 4, 1879.

373 His inspiration had been: Gibson, “Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the American Monument,” New Criterion, October 2009, 44.

373 “Conceive an idea”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 19.

374 “Don’t leave any serious”: Ibid., 30.

374 “I don’t fully understand”: Ibid., Vol. I, 241.

375 “all the while trying”: Ibid., 268.

375 “A poor picture”: Ibid., Vol. II, 79.

375 “Farragut’s legs seem to be”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, March 13, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

375 “He has been very much bothered”: Ibid., March 21, 1879.

375 “Am sorry to bother you”: Ibid., May 21, 1879.

375 “He is very much bothered by visitors”: Ibid., May 30, 1879.

376 “Gus is working”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her parents, May 8, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

376 “Augustus … seems to be conquering”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, May 15, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

376 “Farragut has two legs”: Ibid., May 30, 1879.

376 “It is strange how fascinating the life here”: Ibid., June 13, 1879.

376 She painted a portrait of a friend: Ibid., June 13, 1879, and June 20, 1879.

376 “[He]feels like a lion”: Ibid., August 14, 1879.

376 But something had gone wrong: Baker, Stanny, 56.

376 The nearest thing to an explanation: Genie Emerson to Homer Saint-Gaudens, November 15 (no year), included in the “Drafts to the Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

377 In early days: Ibid.

377 Food was the way White: Ibid.

377 Genie said, and recalled how: Ibid.

377 “feeling sorry for things”: Baker, Stanny, 63.

377 “If ever a man acted”: Ibid.

378 “If you stick to eight feet”: White, Stanford White: Letters to His Family, 90.

378 White thought Madison Square Park: Ibid., 101.

378 “a quiet and distinguished place”: Ibid.

378 “Go for Madison Square”: Tharp, Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Era, 136.

378 “to break away from the regular”: Baker, Stanny, 55.

378 October 14, 1879: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, October 14, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

379 “purely mechanical thing”: Ibid., November 21, 1879.

379 Gus had acquired a flute: Ibid., February 28, 1879, and March 6, 1879.

379 Rental for both: Ibid., November 21, 1879.

379 In December came the coldest: Ibid.

379 The Seine froze over: American Register, December 20, 1879.

379 Two large coal stoves: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, December 12, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

379 “Poor Aug is driven”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her parents, December 12, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

379 “Louis sleeps there”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, December 19, 1879, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

379 “All my brain can conceive”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 257–58.

380 “I haven’t the faintest”: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 102.

380 “One of Farragut’s legs”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, January 23, 1880, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

380 “There are nineteen”: Ibid., February 6, 1880.

381 “I have seen nothing finer”: New York World, February 24, 1880.

381 Only days later: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, March 10, 1880, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

381 “It was immensely heavy”: Ibid.

381 “Clear and cloudless”: Ibid.

381 Aug was “very well”: Ibid.

381 In April, Gussie discovered: Ibid., May 12, 1880, and June 11, 1880; Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 165.

381 “He felt very much pleased”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, April 30, 1880, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

381 His entries were awarded: Tharp, Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Era,142.

381 “that initiative and boldness”: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 102.

382 “the incarnation of the sailor”: Gilder, “The Farragut Monument,” Scribner’s, Vol. XXII (June 1881), 166.

382 The cost was substantial: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to her mother, May 7, 1880, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

382 “You know it is quite an exciting thing”: Ibid., May 12, 1880.

382 The baby, a boy: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 271.

383 This entire composition: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, n.d., but written from New York City, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

383 “Yesterday I had a good long day’s work”: Ibid.

383 “They have commenced cutting”: Ibid.

383 “Did I ever tell you”: Ibid.

383 How was the “Babby”: Ibid.

384 a beautiful and remarkable work: New York Times, May 26, 1881.

384 “The faces are naturally”: Ibid.

384 The character of the indomitable: New York Evening Post, undated review in the Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

384 “In modeling severe”: Gilder, “The Farragut Monument,” Scribner’s, Vol. XXII (June 1881), 164.

384 “The sight of such a thing”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. I, 265.

385 “Haven’t I got a right”: Ibid., 263.

13. Genius in Abundance

All of Sargent’s masterworks from this period are in collections in the United States: The Portrait of Carolus-Duran is at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute at Williamstown, Massachusetts. His two paintings of evening in the Luxembourg Gardens are at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. El Jaleo is at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston; The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and Madame X at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The works of Mary Cassatt, too, are to be seen in collections in museums throughout the United States, though her first portrait of her mother, Reading Le Figaro, is in a private collection. Two of sister Lydia, The Cup of Tea and Lydia Crocheting in the Garden at Marly, are at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. One of her finest 1889 mother-and-child paintings, called Mother and Child, is at the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas.

Americans in Paris, 1860–1900, the illustrated catalogue for a memorable 2006 exhibition with essays by Kathleen Adler, Erica E. Hirshler, and H. Barbara Weinberg, is a superb survey of the works of Cassatt, Sargent, and thirty-five other American artists who studied in Paris. Erica E. Hirshler’s Sargent’s Daughters: The Biography of a Painting is an engaging study of The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit.

Robert Henri, who was to become a leading American painter of the early twentieth century and one of the most inspiring of all American art teachers, also wrote a delightful book called The Art Spirit, with reflections on his time in Paris and much else.

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387 Paris! We are here!: Robert Henri Diary, September 22, 1888, Archives of American Art.

387 in 1879: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 133–34.

387 “The Woman Reading … is a miracle”: Ibid., 137.

388 “There was always a little crowd”: FitzWilliam Sargent to Tom Sargent, August 15, 1879, Archives of American Art.

388 “No American had ever painted”: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 44.

388 May Alcott of Boston: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 102–3.

388 If Mr. John Sargent be excepted: Mathews, Cassatt: A Retrospective, 87.

389 Most of the summer of 1877: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, xiii.

390 It was seeing the portrait of Carolus-Duran: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 75.

390 Sargent’s childhood playmates: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 75.

390 “I enjoyed it very much”: Ibid., 76.

390 “mere dabs and blurs”: Ibid.

391 “application to art of psychological research”: Charteris, John Sargent, 250.

391 “In his eyes”: Ibid.

391 “very poor and bohemian”: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 57.

391 He concentrated on each detail: Ibid.

392 Fanny Watts, the subject of: Ibid., 42.

392 Later came even more talk: Ibid., 64–65.

393 “she has wonderful spirits”: Mrs. Robert Simpson Cassatt to Robbie Cassatt, May 21, 1882, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

394 “Mame’s success is certainly more marked”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 160–61.

394 “very ill”: Robert Simpson Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, August 2, 1882, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

394 “Mary being the worst kind of alarmist”: Ibid.

394 “Poor dear!”: Mathews, Mary Cassatt: A Life, 162.

395 “left alone in the world”: Ibid.

395 “the most striking picture”: Charteris, John Sargent, 57.

396 Edward Darley Boit: Hirshler, Sargent’s Daughters, 20.

396 “brilliantly friendly”: Ibid., 21.

396 The two oldest Boit daughters: Ibid., 4.

397 “I am persuaded that the individual”: Charteris, John Sargent, 236.

397 “more felicitous and interesting”: Hirshler, Sargent’s Daughters, 130.

397 “the complete effect”: Ibid., 96.

397 “the most talked-about painter in France”: Ratcliff, John Singer Sargent, 67.

398 “especially attracted by the bizarre”: Charteris, John Sargent, 250–51.

398 Born in New Orleans: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 113.

398 Pierre Gautreau: Ibid.

399 “thrilled by every movement”: Simmons, From Seven to Seventy: Memories of a Painter and Yankee, 127.

399 “homage to her beauty”: Charteris, John Sargent, 59.

399 Do you object to people: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 113.

399 “still struggling with the unpaintable beauty”: Charteris, John Sargent, 59.

399 “They have painters who carry off our medals”: Davis, Strapless: John Singer Sargent and the Fall of Madame X, 94.

400 “His life is a pleasant life”: FitzWilliam Sargent to Tom Sargent, November 16, 1883, Archives of American Art.

400 “a horrid state of anxiety”: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 113.

401 When, during one sitting: Davis, Strapless, 205.

401 One day I was dissatisfied with it: Charteris, John Sargent, 60.

401 When Carolus-Duran came by for a look: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 113.

401 “The only Franco-American product of importance”: James, Henry James Letters, Vol. III, ed. Edel, 32.

401 “half-liked”: Ibid., 43.

402 Walked up the Champs-Élysées: Charteris, John Sargent, 61.

403 “I went home with him”: Ibid.

403 The reviews were essentially of three kinds: Ibid., 63.

403 a “caricature”: New York Times, May 18, 1884.

403 “in a person of this type”: Sidlauskas, “Painting Skin,” American Art, Vol. XV, no. 3 (Fall 2001), 20.

404 Years later, when he sold: Charteris, John Sargent, 65.

404 Yet hard hit as he was: Ibid., 63.

404 He left Paris in late May 1884: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, xv.

404 The first rivet of her skin of copper sheets: Weisberger, Statue of Liberty: The First Hundred Years, 64–65.

405 The disassembly began in December: Ibid., 74.

405 The pedestal on which Liberty: Ibid., 82.

405 It was to stand on the Champ de Mars: Jonnes, Eiffel’s Tower, 22.

405 “a project,” it was said: Ibid., 23.

406 In the fall of 1886: Ibid., 23–34.

407 We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects: Ibid., 26.

407 “the commercial nation of America”: Ibid., 27.

408 The chief problem to contend with: Harriss, The Tallest Tower, 62.

408 “a metal spider web”: Huysmans, “Le Fer,” Certains, 1889, excerpted from L’Art Moderne/Certains, 1975, 346–50. This was included in Cate, The Eiffel Tower: A Tour de Force, 34.

408 “a work of disconcerting”: Ibid.

408 “coarseness”: Ibid.

408 A professor of mathematics predicted: Harriss, The Tallest Tower, 69.

408 By March 1889: Ibid., 105–6.

409 “You will remember always”: Ibid., 107.

409 “We both lost our hearts”: Stevenson, Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed., Mehew, 273.

409 “the most intense creature”: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, 179.

409 “Anybody may have a ‘portrait’ ”: Ibid., 167.

409 “Walking about and talking”: Ibid., 141.

410 “John thinks of nothing else”: Olson, John Singer Sargent, 153–54.

410 In September of 1887: Ormond and Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: The Early Portraits, Vol. I, xvi.

411 A group of aspiring young Mormon painters: Gibbs, Harvesting the Light, 18.

411 “the highest possible development of talent”: Ibid., 3.

411 Anna Klumpke, a tiny young woman: Dwyer, Anna Klumpke, 3–5.

411 “Prepare yourselves to compete”: Ibid., 19.

411 “The immense value”: Beaux, Background with Figures: Autobiography of Cecilia Beaux, 174.

412 “I am painting sunlight”: Weinberg, Childe Hassam: American Impressionist, 64.

412 “To go about Paris”: Ibid., 60.

412 “The people I saw copying at the Louvre”: Clara Belle Owen to her mother, November 12, 1880, Archives of American Art.

412 “The day was so short”: Ibid., December 20, 1880.

412 “the privilege we have of working there”: Ibid.

412 “I am too busy for that”: Letter of Clara Belle Owen, June 13, 1881, Archives of American Art.

412 “Paris! We are here!”: Robert Henri Diary, September 22, 1888, Archives of American Art.

413 “Dust and dirt are everywhere”: Ibid., September 26, 1888.

413 “bungling attempts”: Ibid., September 25, 1888.

413 “a pretty woman”: Ibid., November 5, 1888.

413 “Made start—poor one”: Ibid.

414 Since I have been here: Ibid., December 25, 1888.

414 “Who would not be an art student in Paris?”: Ibid., September 27, 1888.

414 Flags everywhere: Ibid., May 6, 1889.

414 Some 150,000 Americans: Jonnes, Eiffel’s Tower, 266.

414 “shed over Paris a shower of gold”: Ibid., 265.

415 Thousands of electric bulbs: Harriss, The Tallest Tower, 137.

415 The Palais des Machines: Ibid., 129.

415 One of the many new productions: Kimes, The Star and the Laurel: The Centennial History of Daimler, Mercedes, and Benz, 48.

416 “the unchecked brutality”: Reports of the U.S. Commissioners to the Universal Exposition of 1889, 27.

416 portrait by Rosa Bonheur: Jonnes, Eiffel’s Tower, 253.

416 By the close of the fair: Harriss, The Tallest Tower, 116.

417 To the Americans who made the ascent: Jonnes, Eiffel’s Tower, 158.

417 “The glory of Eiffel is in the magnitude”: Ibid., 214.

417 Among the wealthy, prominent New Yorkers: Weitzenhoffer, The Havemeyers, 56.

417 For Louisine a great part of the excitement: Ibid., 58.

417 “indelibly graven”: Ibid., 262.

417 “Her horse had slipped upon the pavement”: Ibid., 60.

418 “What a man Courbet was!”: Ibid.

418 With Mary on the “lookout”: Ibid.

418 Since the death of her sister: Mathews, Mary Cassatt, 171.

418 “Mame has got to work again”: Mathews, ed., Cassatt and Her Circle: Selected Letters, 166.

418 “lamentably deficient in good sense”: Robert Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, July 18, 1883, Archives of American Art.

418 “She is dreadfully headstrong.…”: Ibid., August 20, 1883, Archives of American Art.

419 “and the constant anxiety”: Mary Cassatt to Alexander Cassatt, January 5, 1884, Archives of American Art.

419 In 1886, when the French art dealer: Mathews, Mary Cassatt, 175–76.

419 But it was then, in 1889: Ibid., 190.

419 “easily the most distinguished”: Jonnes, Eiffel’s Tower, 105.

420 “had become a silent and broken old one”: Charteris, John Sargent, 246.

420 “I say!”: Ibid., 101.

420 “to enter a new world altogether”: The Times (London), May 3, 1889.

14. Au Revoir, Paris!

While a great deal about Saint-Gaudens’s struggle with depression is included in his Reminiscences, many important additional details are to be found among the miscellaneous notes in the collection at Dartmouth College. What little is known about Davida Clark and Louis, and the Frances Grimes interview, are also there, as well as financial records kept by Gussie and the recollections of James Fraser. The immense photographic collection at the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site has also been a major source of information for this and previous chapters.

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423 But coming here: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 191.

423 No particular notice: Holmes, One Hundred Days in Europe, 175.

423 “not a soul”: Ibid., 162.

424 “Rip Van Winkle experiment”: Ibid., 1.

424 “But when I found them”: Ibid., 170.

424 “What would the shopkeeper”: Ibid., 163–64.

424 “sacred edifice”: Ibid., 165.

424 “I was thinking much more of Foucault’s”: Ibid.

424 “I sent my card in”: Ibid., 171.

425 “Nothing looked more nearly the same”: Ibid., 175.

425 “But what to me”: Ibid., 168.

425 “desirous of returning in what measure”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 324.

426 “a little box of a room”: Ibid.

426 “monumental largeness” and “too complex”: Ibid., 326.

426 “an old chap”: Ibid., 324.

426 He trudged: Ibid., 324.

426 “the blue smoke”: Ibid., 325.

426 “deeply felt need”: Ibid., 323.

427 James Earle Fraser: Obituary, New York Times, October 12, 1953.

427 “discovered”: Freundlich, The Sculpture of James Earle Fraser, 21.

427 “Strange that after having been in Paris”: Tanner, “The Story of An Artist’s Life,” Part II, The World’s Work, 11770.

427 In a café on the Left Bank: Perlman, Robert Henri: His Life and Art, 20.

427 “He’s modest”: Robert Henri Diary, January 27, 1891, Archives of American Art.

427 Tanner’s expenses: Tanner, “The Story of an Artist’s Life,” Part I, The World’s Work, 11666.

427 His total expenses: Ibid., II, 11772.

427 Never were windows opened: Ibid., 11770.

428 “In the cheap restaurants”: Ibid., 11771.

428 William Dean Howells: Weintraub, Whistler: A Biography, 380.

428 “Oh, you are young”: Ibid.

428 Live all you can: Lewis, The Jameses, 518.

428 The Ambassadors: James, The Ambassadors, 13.

429 My grandson, Georges de Mare: De Mare, G. P. A. Healy, American Artist, 291.

429 “His love of France”: Ibid., 292.

429 In 1892, Healy decided: Ibid., 293–94.

429 arrived in Paris again: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907: A Master of American Sculpture, 211.

430 he was America’s preeminent: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 206.

430 the only nude he ever rendered: Ibid., Vol. I, 393.

431 “Augustus Saint-Gaudens—a sculptor whose art”: Research materials from Harvard University Archives, HUC 6897, HIG 300, UAI 5.150.

431 His inspiration for the building: Granger, Charles Follen McKim: A Study of His Life and Architecture, 23–24.

431 By the late 1890s: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907, 211.

431 “I suppose through overwork”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 86–87.

432 Gussie had suffered a miscarriage: Bond, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The Man and His Art, 55; Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907, 210–11.

432 “aflame”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 373.

432 “the high pressure tension”: “Biography—Louis Saint-Gaudens—in pencil,” n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

432 “But I was sick”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 179.

432 “deplorable mental condition”: Ibid., 138.

432 “neurasthenia,” its symptoms described as: Beard, ed., A Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion (Neurasthenia), Its Symptoms, Nature, Sequences, Treatment, 24–30.

432 A Feeling of Profound Exhaustion: Ibid., 66.

433 “a syndrome marked”: See Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Springfield, Mass.: 1993), 1520.

433 “a weary lion”: Hagans, “Saint-Gaudens, Zorn, and the Goddesslike Miss Anderson,” American Art, 76.

433 “crippled for the remainder of his life”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 122.

433 Quite on the contrary: Ibid.

433 Swedish model: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907, 210–11.

433 the summer of 1889, she had a baby: Ibid.

434 “many affairs”: Recollections of Frances Grimes, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

435 Sweetness and kindness: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, undated handwritten letter, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

435 “the great things”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 205.

435 In October of 1897: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907, 211.

435 “maddening”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 123.

435 “out-of-the-way corners”: Ibid.

436 The young woman who posed for him: Hagans, “Saint-Gaudens, Zorn, and the Goddesslike Miss Anderson,” American Art, 81.

436 “the handsomest model”: Material from “Draft of the Reminiscences of SaintGaudens,” Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

436 For the horse: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 77.

437 “state of turmoil”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 133.

437 “I make seventeen models”: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907, 108.

437 “dominating little character”: Fraser, unpublished autobiography, n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

437 “He is a big fellow”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 194.

438 “blue fits”: Ibid., 120.

438 “I am feeling very well now”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, February 26, 1898, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

438 “This Paris experience”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 186.

438 “magnificent voice”: Fraser, unpublished autobiography, n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

438 “Dear old Fellow”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 188–92.

438 … the elevated road: Ibid.

438 “Up to my visit here”: Ibid., 192.

439 “a feeling of weariness”: Ibid.

439 “another of those fearful depressions”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, February 10, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

439 “I had come to appreciate Paris”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 178.

440 “Your father … is beginning the Sherman cloak”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Homer Saint-Gaudens, December 9, 1898, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

440 Now the left hind leg: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 133.

440 “insane asylum”: Ibid., 136.

440 “Eleven moulders”: Ibid.

440 “The Sherman is in the place of honor”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, May 1 (no year but appears to be 1900), Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

440 Feeling a need to get away: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Homer Saint-Gaudens, May 26, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

440 It had been their mutual friend John La Farge: O’Toole, The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, 1880–1918, 165, 157.

441 “The whole meaning and feeling of the figure”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. I, 363.

441 “Paris delights me”: Adams, Letters of Henry Adams, 1892–1918, 235.

441 “risked”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 366.

441 “to draw him out for a stroll”: Ibid.

441 “very—very bald”: O’Toole, The Five of Hearts, 6.

441 “most inarticulate”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 366.

442 All the others: Ibid.

442 “excessive”: Ibid.

442 “inane”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 198.

442 “Evidently I must”: Ibid.

442 in a letter to Will Low: Ibid., 198–201.

442 “very sick”: Ibid., 202.

442 “It is fearful”: Ibid.

442 From a surviving note in his hand: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Louis Saint-Gaudens, October 27, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

443 Your father is about the same: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Homer Saint-Gaudens, November 16, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

443 “Your father has been made a member”: Augusta Saint-Gaudens to Homer Saint-Gaudens, December 1, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

443 trouble with the horse’s upraised left hind leg: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 133.

443 “on the homestretch”: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Augusta Saint-Gaudens, July 8, 1899, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

444 He was anti-Semitic: O’Toole, The Five of Hearts, 70.

444 “Porcupine Poeticus”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 334.

444 I must study politics and war: McCullough, John Adams, 236–37.

445 “Every day opens new horizons”: O’Toole, The Five of Hearts, 322.

445 The automobile, considered a curiosity: Weber, France: Fin de Siècle, 206–7, and Paris Daily Messenger, May 5, 1900.

445 Not until they found themselves: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 367.

445 “conventional as death”: Adams, Letters of Henry Adams, 1892–1918, 245.

445 “a quintessence of Boston”: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 368.

446 “channel of force”: Ibid.

446 “channel of taste”: Ibid.

446 “instinctively preferred the horse”: Ibid.

446 “a new life”: Adams, Letters of Henry Adams, 1892–1918, 246.

446 Exposition Universelle: See coverage of the 1900 exposition in the American Register, Paris Daily Messenger, and Paris Herald. 447 First Chicagoan: Rosenblum, Stevens, and Dumas, 1900: Art at the Crossroads, 57.

447 “All Americans are in Paris”: Adams, Letters of Henry Adams, 1892–1918, 291.

447 Adams, who could not stay away: Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 360.

447 “air-ships”: Ibid., 367.

447 “His chief interest”: Ibid., 361.

448 “began to feel the forty-foot dynamo”: Ibid.

448 “pell-mell”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 185.

448 “arms, legs, faces”: Ibid.

448 Four of his own major works: Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907: A Master of American Sculpture, 211.

449 Auguste Rodin was seen: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay: The Life and Works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 309; Gibson, “Augustus Saint-Gaudens and the American Monument,” New Criterion, October 2009, 44.

449 “too much the effect of a guttering candle”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 50.

449 struck by severe stomach pains: Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Louis Saint-Gaudens, August 2, 1900; Fraser, unpublished autobiography, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College; Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Vol. II, 222; Tharp, Saint-Gaudens and the Gilded Era, 307.

449 Years later Fraser put down on paper: Fraser, unpublished autobiography, n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

451 a few final instructions: Ibid.

451 Saint-Gaudens sailed for home: Wilkinson, Uncommon Clay, 311–12.

451 At the Opera, Gounod’s Faust: New York Tribune, May 5, 1901.

452 “daily thronged”: Paris Herald, April 10, 1901.

452 “making her mark”: New York Herald, May 12, 1901.

452 “We had no money … but we wanted nothing”: Duncan, My Life, 67.

Epilogue

Not only are the Saint-Gaudens home and its furnishings at Cornish just as they were and the view of Mount Ascutney as magnificent as ever, the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site includes the greatest assembly of Saint-Gaudens works to be seen anywhere.

Saint-Gaudens’s Sherman and Victory, like his Farragut, remain major public monuments at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street and in Madison Square Park in New York, seen by tens of thousands of people every day, most all of whom have little or no idea of the Civil War history represented, or the story behind how each came to be.

John Singer Sargent’s painting of Theodore Roosevelt hangs prominently in the East Room of the White House, while at the other end of the house, over the mantel in the State Dining Room, is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by George P. A. Healy. Six other portraits by Healy are part of the White House Collection and another seventeen are at the National Portrait Gallery.

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453 Gus put Fraser in charge: Freundlich, The Sculpture of James Earle Fraser, 23.

453 Work on the Sherman: Fraser, unpublished autobiography, n.d., Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College; ibid., 21.

454 “The sculptor took no part”: New York Times, May 31, 1903; New York Herald, May 31, 1903.

454 In 1904, a fire: Freundlich, The Sculpture of James Earle Fraser, 23.

454 In 1906, Gus’s old friend: See Baker, Stanny: The Gilded Life of Stanford White, 373–76; Augustus Saint-Gaudens to Alfred Garnier, July 6, 1906, Saint-Gaudens Papers, Dartmouth College.

454 “We are not dead yet”: Saint-Gaudens, ed., Reminiscences of Augustus SaintGaudens, Vol. II, 58.

454 The last and one of the most spirited: See Hureaux, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848–1907: A Master of American Sculpture, 188–89.

455 In late July, an assistant: Bond, Augustus Saint-Gaudens: The Man and His Art, 211–12.

455 Homer Saint-Gaudens, after a career: See obituaries of Homer Saint-Gaudens in New York Times, December 9, 1958, and Pittsburgh Press, December 10, 1958.

456 Informed that he was to be knighted: Charteris, John Sargent, 220.

456 His glasses had been pushed up: Olson, John Singer Sargent: His Portrait,268.

456 He found her propped up in bed: Biddle, An American Artist’s Story, 218–19.

456 She regretted missing lunch: Ibid., 219.

456 “Miss Cassatt as usual”: Ibid.