The Degas/ Cassatt Exhibit and Lois Mailou Jones

Yesterday I visited the National Gallery of Art in DC and browsed the new Degas/ Cassatt exhibit there.   What prompted me to go was my knowing that Edgar Degas and Mary Cassatt were both impressionist painters.  And that reminded me of the great American artist Lois Mailou Jones (1905 – 1998).  Jones was influenced by the impressionist school of painters.  Let’s look at some of her earlier accomplishments.

Lois Mailou Jones had been a designer; taught art at Howard University; and won prizes for her art in Boston, at Martha’s Vineyard, and in Harlem and elsewhere before she went to Paris to study.  

But her study and productivity in Paris, at the Académie Julian (1937 – 1938) helped her transition from being a designer and teacher exclusively to being a painter and artist. 

Some of her paintings influenced by the impressionist school of painting were:   Les Pommes Vertes; Chou-fleur et Citrouille, Paris; La Cuisine dans L’Atelier de l’Artiste, Paris; Rue Norvins, Montmartre, Paris; Dans le Jardin du Luxembourg, Pars; and Dejeuner, Place du Tertre, Montmartre.  

During that year in Paris she produced many and various other paintings as well. 

Once Mailou Jones finished her studies in Paris she transitioned to being recognized for her own creations.  She maintained a great relationship with Paris, returning many times through the years to paint and visit friends.  She enjoyed a long and illustrious career.  Her paintings are on display in galleries and museums all over the world.

The new Degas/ Cassatt exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington will be on display until next month, October 5^th.

Celebrating Gwendolyn Bennett's Birthday

Writer, poet, and artist Gwendolyn Bennett's birthday is July 8th.  But since I believe a person's birthday celebration should not be limited to just one day in the month, I'm starting the celebration  early with this piece about Bennett's Paris-connected moment in time.

Gwendolyn Bennett was one of the literary lights of the Harlem Renaissance.  The Columbia U. and Pratt Institute graduate became a professor of art at Howard University in 1924.  In 1925 she received a $1,000 fellowship from the Sigma Alpha Theta sorority to study in Paris, and she arrived in the French capital in June of the same year.

During her year in the City of Light, she met writer Gertrude Stein, singer and activist Paul Robeson, poet and novelist René Maran, and other writers and performers.  She carved a place for herself in the African American Community there.

As she did not have a lot of money, Bennett spent many of her days painting and writing poetry,  and recording her observations in a journal.

About the City, she wrote in her journal:

            “There never was a more beautiful city than Paris… there couldn’t be.  On every hand are works of art and beautiful vistas. . . one has the impression of looking through at fairy-worlds as one sees gorgeous buildings, arches and towers rising from among mounds of trees from afar.”

While living in Paris, Bennett saw Josephine Baker perform, and met musicians, singers, and dancers.  She dated Louis Jones, a violinist, and she enjoyed dancing at Bricktop’s nightclub, and experienced nights on the town in Montmartre.

After the year ended, Gwendolyn Bennett returned to New York.  Although she never lived in Paris again, she paid homage to that great city in short stories that she wrote, such as “Wedding Day” and “Tokens.”   Her time in Paris had surely broadened her literary horizons,  just as it had done for other important African American writers of the 1920s,