Greater Journey, The by David McCullough ~July Book Club Online

[JoanP]

The Book Club Online is  the oldest  book club on the Internet, begun in 1996, open to everyone.  We offer cordial discussions of one book a month,  24/7 and  enjoy the company of readers from all over the world.  Everyone is welcome.

July Book Club Online

The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris
by David McCullough

"Magnifique! "In The Greater Journey, David McCullough tells the enthralling, inspiring—and until now, untold—story of the adventurous American artists, writers, doctors, politicians, and others who set off for Paris in the years between 1830 and 1900, hungry to learn and to excel in their work. What they achieved would profoundly alter American history." Amazon review                                      Discussion Schedule: Week 1 - July 14 - 20 ~ Part I/ Chapters 1 & 2 Week 2 - July 21 - 27 ~ Part I/ Chapters 3 & 4  Week 3 - July 28 - Aug. 3 ~ Part II/ Chapters 5 & 6 Week 4 - Aug. 4 - 10 ~ Part II/ Chapters 7 & 8 Week 5 - Aug. 11 - 17 ~ Part III/ Chapters 9, 10, 11 Week 6-  Aug. 18 - 24 ~ Part III/ Chapters 12,13 Week 7-  Aug. 25 - 31 ~ Part III/ Chapter 14, Epilogue

Relevant Links

David McCullough-Brian Lamb  Intervew (Books TV)  ; David McCullough-Charlie Rose;   Biography - David McCullough; Morse's Interactive Gallery of the Louvre

Some Topics for Discussion
Aug. 25-31

Part III ~  Chapter 14 ~ Au Revoir Paris ~ Epilogue

1.  Why do you think David McCullough chose  the 1830's  to begin his research, and then end with the great Exposition in 1900?

2.  Have you ever returned to a place you once visited long ago (not your home town)  in search of past memories?  What did you find? Who does David McCullough follow back to Paris in his concluding chapter, "Au Revoir Paris?"  Why do you think he chose this title?

3.  Why does Dr. Oliver Holmes observe  that medical students no longer flock to Paris from America as they did 50 years ago?  Do art students still fill the ateliers as they once did?

4. Are you familiar with some of the young artists named here - like Maurice Prendergast, John Alexander, Robert Henri?  I'd like to learn more of Henry Tanner, the young artist who had expressed concern at the prospect of being the only Black American student in Paris, as he had been in the Academy of Fine Arts in Pennsylvania

5.   In 1897 Augustus Saint-Audens returned to Paris after achieving highest honors in American art. 
  His son Homer insisted it was not illness that brought him back.  10 days later he returned home for good.  Why do you think McCullough chooses to concentrate on Saint-Audens?


Epilogue

What was McCullough's  purpose of the Epilogue? What did you learn from these concluding paragraphs?  What more would you have included here?


 

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP,  PatH  Barb,  JoanK,   Marcie

[JoanP]

Saint-Gaudens spent time travelling all over Europe  - and copying great artists - sculptors.  Here's the result of his time in Florence -  (Note the legs!)

Donatello
 St. George
 c. 1420
 Marble
 6’5” (1.95 m)
 Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence

 
“The legs move, the arms are ready, the head alert, and the whole figure acts; by virtue of the character, the manner and form of the action presents to our eyes a valiant, invincible, and magnanimous soul.” – Francesco Bocchi, sixteenth century.

Don't you love the Internet?

[Ella Gibbons]

THANKS, JOANP, for putting the statute online - I love it and the others by Gus.  Gus and Gussie, too cute, two artists in Paris. 

"Paris was essential to the work, Gus felt, not only because the art current ran stronger there, but because........experenced craftsmen, plaster molders, foundrymen, and the like-were plentiful. "

I was surprised that Stanford White appeared in the book; I also noticed that the base or one of the bases for Gus's statutes were by White.  He has appeared before in books I have read - his murder, the trial of the nurderer, all over a lady, such a scandal!

McC has numerous letters to help with this chapter; letters home from Gussie and White.  Remember the day when we wrote letters?  I kept so many of them, but when I moved they went the way of my "more simplistic life."

[Ella Gibbons]

I'm not very fond of the St. George statlute, JOAN.  Is that a coat of armor he has on, I've never seen one that covers the front all the way to the legs. 

You've asked several times who we would like to know more about, what art we liked best.  So it's about time we answered.

The impressionists have always been a favorite form of painting for me.  Mary Cassat's paintings; others that I can't remember -  Monet? 

[JoanP]

Ella - what do YOU think attracted Saint-Gaudens to Donatello's  15th century marble?  I see the position of St.George's leg.  Is their a hint of movement in the hunk of marble?

Did you read that Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White were good friends - and worked together on the Farragut monument in New York?  He did the base, if I remember it right.  Curious about what you know about him.  Dare I ask? To me, his name is vaguely familiar, but I don't know why...

[JoanP]

Perfect timing, Ella. We're ready to move on to Chapter 13 - featuring John Singer Sargent and Miss Mary Cassatt!  I keep waiting for these two American artists to meet in Paris. Maybe now is the time.

[Jonathan]

What a journey this has turned out to be. An endless journey. We're being teased into looking for other books on these distinguished Americans who journeyed to Paris. Saint Gaudens has caught my fancy. And so have the others.

Farragut. Sherman. Lincoln. Marian Hooper, aka Clover. Some think the Adams Memorial is Saint Gaudens' masterpiece. I agree. The memorial is a captivating piece of work, but Clover would also have looked splendid on a horse. There is a photograph to prove it, in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. I found it reproduced in The Five of Hearts, a book by Patricia O'Toole. Saint Gaudens must have seen it. It's the same face, on both the memorial and the equestrian. Clover was one of the hearts. The book has this to say about her, and much more:

'Clover also responded intensely to the beauty of flowers...she designed a garden....By planting lilies of the valley and daffodils for early spring, chrysanthemums for fall, and roses that bloomed until Christmas, Clover had flowers for most of the months she and Henry spent in Washington. Each spring she eagerly waited for the capital's magnolias to flower and combed the wilds of Rock Creek Park in search of the first dogwood petals.' p99

His brothers wondered what he saw in her, and Henry Adams replied:

'On coming to know Clover Hooper, I found her so far away superior to any woman I had ever met, that I did not think it worthwhile to resist...the devil and all his imps couldn't resist the fascination of a clever woman who chooses to be loved.'

What a marvellous account of the historian and the sculptor at the Amiens cathedral, with each seeing it for the first time, with the other's eyes.

Perhaps the Adams Memorial belongs in the Louvre. That alone would make a trip to Paris worthwhile.

[Jonathan]

"Paris was essential to the work, Gus felt, not only because the art current ran stronger there, but because........experenced craftsmen, plaster molders, foundrymen, and the like-were plentiful. "

Thanks for pointing that out, Ella. I've always thought that it must have taken many craftsmen, artisans and artists to create all the beautiful stuff around Paris, the many monuments.

[JoanP]

Jonathan...is it just me, or do you see DM choosing his own favorites too, as he nears the end of the booK?  Saint-Gaudens has to be at the top of his list.  John Singer Sargent?  Mary Cassatt?  Or is he concentrating on these three because they returned to distinguish themselves, AFTER the Franco-Prussian War? Or?

Did you actually find and read O'Toole's Five of Hearts, Jonathan?

[BarbStAubrey]

Or maybe it was because he had more letters and other sources to turn to where as many did not leave material or having, years ago helped the son of Claude Monet find a condo in Austin, I learned the family had to develop tight control of his art and notes etc. since they found the most unsavory of businesses using his father's art in their advertizement - nothing is released without permission and usually a fee or there is a court case guaranteed.

And so McCullough may not have been willing to spend the money or he maybe did not get permission for access to written documents for other notables from the time.

I thought it interesting Arianna Huffington on recently interviews said also that she plowed ahead with much derisive, critical scrutiny and little support - sounds like a few of the artists in this book.  New ideas must take awhile after unsettling the secure calm comfort of what folks are used to seeing, hearing, reading etc.

[JoanP]

A really good point, Barb ...McCullough made extensive use of the letters and diaries he was able to find...I'm thinking of Gussie Saint-Gaudens' now.

I've been looking for some interaction between the two popular and talented American painters.
Sorry to say...I can't find a single instance where they sat in a cafe...and talked of their art.  Nothing.  But I did learn more about MaryC and John Singer Sargent in the contrasts McCullough provides...the gregarious, outgoing Singer Sargent...the quiet, private Mary Cassatt, each with a style and subject matter that reflected their personalities.   Maybe it isn't so surprising they didn't hang out together

Still I'd love to hear of some interaction between the two. Did you learn anything new of Mary Cassatt in this chapter?  Does McCullough refer to the much talked about affair between Mary and Edgar Degas?

[bellamarie]

Yes,  Farragut's legs do seem further apart, but then the two pics are two different angles. 

I was disappointed in chapter 13, there was very little about Mary Cassatt.  In the interview I saw prior to reading the book Mc stated he covered a lot of Mary Cassatt in the book.  I beg to differ, there is very little. 

[JoanP]

Maybe McCullough didn't realize how much his readers already knew of Mary Cassattr, Bella, thinking  his readers would be hearing these details about her for the first time.  I had always thought of the painter of all those mothers and children as being maternal herself - like Berthe Morisot.
McCullough portrays her as an artist living completely for her art - I know there are no do-overs in life, but can't help thinking of her art, had she had a child of her own. Every once in a while there are indications that she wonders the same thing

[PatH]

Bellamarie, read the very last section of the epilogue.  Mary Cassatt rings down the curtain with her usual indomitable spirit.

[PatH]

I'm not very fond of the St. George statlute, JOAN.  Is that a coat of armor he has on, I've never seen one that covers the front all the way to the legs. 

The thing going down to the ground in the statue of Saint George is his shield, with the Cross of Saint George blazoned on it.

[JoanP]

Thanks, Pat!  How else would we have known he was Saint George!

Was there anything in Chapter 13, that you did learn?  I really wasn't surprised that McCullough didn't mention an affair between Mary Cassatt and Degas.  After all, it was gossip.  There was no diary, no letters to back up the idea.  BUT, I was surprised at what I read of James Singer Sargent.  This artist, like Mary Cassatt, had never married.  Did I read that right?  Was McCullough suggesting that he was homosexual?  I wonder where that came from.  

How about the title of Chapter 13 - "Genius in Abundance"?  Who are the "geniuses" of whom McCullough writes in this chapter?  

[PatH]

Ella,thanks for posting that video of Saint-Gaudens' Farragut statue (post 353).  It totally changed my opinion of the work.  I think the head-on view in the book is absolutely the worst viewing angle.  Everything is static--the coat, the stiff face, the pose.  But when you see it from different angles, everything changes.  The coat is really blowing, and you can see the strength, vigor, and determination of the man.

Also, I thought the pedestal didn't go with the statue, but when you see it from a distance, in the park setting, it does work.  And with people in the picture, sitting on the bench, you can see how well the whole thing enhances the public use of the space.

White was known for good design of public spaces--outdoors, or indoor large rooms.  He had a feel, in terms of size, traffic flow, and use, of what worked well.

[Jonathan]

Yes, I agree, PatH. Somehow the pedestal with its fine artistry doesn't go with tough-looking Farragut. Warships, in bas-relief, in action would have been more suitable. The female forms of  Loyalty and Courage with their great artistry are too distracting. And in the background, towering over Farragut's head is Saint-Gaudens' Diana on the Madison Square Garden's tower. Very beautiful, but Dammit, where are the torpedos?

How many Farraguts are there? The feet are definitely farther apart in the two photos you posted, JoanP. And there are other small differnces in detail, even allowing for different camera angles. What strikes me is the different background in every photo. Our book has familiar NY landmarks in the background. The ones above have very ordinary apartment buildings. Notice the different tree growths. I found another photo in the Tharp bio of Saint-Gaudens in which Farragut stands out against an empty sky. Very effective. Awesome. Well, some trees to the side. But lots of empty park space behind the monument. Was that really Madison Square when the monument was put up?

[Ella Gibbons]

I'm not sure where we are in the book.  I had a bookmark wherein  McC writes of the Exposition of 1889, a great success.  "the works of art on display........ totaled more than 6,000, making it the largest art exhibit ever assembled in one place......" Imagine hanging all of them.  Sargent's THE DAUGHTERS OF EDWARD DARLEY BOIT was included; everyone had an opinion about it:

Here it is?

http://jssgallery.org/paintings/Daughters_of_Edward_Darley_Boit.htm

I love the colors, the depth of the painting; however I think the children are too much alike, have no expression on their faces.   It's a bit too "poised."

[JoanP]

"I'm not sure where we are in the book"

Ella, whenever unsure where we are in the book - or the discussion - take a look at the schedule - and questions in the heading.  As it turns out, you are exactly where we are in puzzling over the work of John Singer Sargent.  There's a link to "the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" in the heading - and another to his famous "El Jaleo."  They are both so different, aren't they?  One full of movement and passion, the other...sort of frozen. "expressionless" as you say.  They seem to be painted by two different artists, don't they?

El Jaleo


Daughters of Edward Darley Boit

[JoanP]

John Singer Sargent's work - always mixed reviews.  He seems to have experimented with different styles...some showed the influence of other artists...others, clearly his own.

 One 16the century artist, Velazquez, influenced both Sargent and Mary Cassatt - and others, I'm sure.  Here's his "Les Meninas"...Can you see his influence on Sargent in "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit"?

Las Meninas by Velazquez

 
Can you find Sargent's portait of the beautiful Mme. Gatreau that was met with such controversy at this exposition?

[JoanP]

"How many Farraguts are there?" Jonathan - I read ahead - the concluding pages we'll be discussing starting Monday.  I think your question will be answered there!

Have a great weekend everyone!

[Ella Gibbons]

Yes, I can, JoanP.  The darks, the lights, the expressionless faces.

Thanks for putting them in, they are all quite beautiful, but different..  Sargent's EL JALEO is very different isn't it?  ACTION, EXPRESSION, you can almost hear the music.

[BarbStAubrey]

I figured out why I thought after the chapters about the uprising in Paris the chapters felt more like name dropping - that is it - the artists are not living among the Bohemian artists of Paris - they are mostly painting studio art because they can afford a room in which to paint - there are no Toulouse-Lautrec nor even a Renior among them - Mary Cassett uses the palate of the open air artists but she is not painting garden scenes - it feels as if they are walled off from the artistic world of Paris and catering to the American dollar to afford their Paris lifestyle. The result, the Americans with dollars are wealthy - not even the upper middle class American that could afford a Parisian jaunt as in the 1920s when literary and musical artists peppered Paris.

There is no talk of Paris Cafes or taking in the life in Montparnasse or the night life in Montmartre much less showing the poor that peopled these areas. No mention of the awful horrific train crash at Gare Montparnasse in 1895 nor the vineyards on the outskirts of Paris. No parks, nothing except studio art as if they have created an island that is not quite American and not quite Parisian but defiantly the trappings of a class structure.

As full of movement and atmosphere in El Jaleo it is not depicting the real atmosphere - it is like a cartoon of reality. Thinking about it the mother/baby and young child relationship that Mary Cassatt paints would be so alien to the French with their tradition of babies being wet nursed, most often in the country with a peasant women while the mother was expected to get her figure back and dress in the latest fashion. And so her paintings were very American - no wonder she did not have the sales that made her famous till well after her death.

Now I am not sure if David McCullough chose to write what made him comfortable or he did not dig or was there no struggling American artists left in Paris living in cheap quarters and rubbing shoulders with the working class at the markets and cafes during the later nineteenth century.    

[BarbStAubrey]

Hmmm I wonder if it is McCullough's choices that separates these artists from Paris - found these by Sargent that shows a man who did mingle - these are not as dramatic as El Jaleo but they show a freer view of real life.

[pedln]

Can you see his influence on Sargent in "The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit"?

Yes, JoanP, and also in his El Jaleo, with the contrasts between shadow an light.  I wonder how the Boit daughter who was in the shadow felt about the painting.  No one would really see her.

Barb, I'm glad you included Carnation, Lily, lily, Rose, which has much appeal.  And interesting that he would only paint it at dusk.

[JoanP]

Thanks for those paintings, Barbara.  They really show the terrific range of his work.   Didn't know about the dusk painting...

Isn't the likeness of the two family portraits amazing?  You can see the Velazquez influence - those little girls - some looking directly at the painter, others in the shadows.  Neither look like the traditional family portrait of the 16th OR the 19th centuries.  Don't you wonder how either artist got the girls to pose for any amount of time.  It's almost as if they gave up.  It's interesting to examples of all of Sargent.

I m managed to find Sargent's most controversial painting...It wasn't easy because he later changed the title to "Madame X"  after it's tepid reception at the Salon.  Poor Sargent!  McCullough writes that he had never known criticism for any of his paintings.  After repainting the portrait with a shoulder strap, he decided to leave Paris for London - for good.

[JoanP]

The last part of chapter 13 takes us to the great Exposition of 1889.  This was huge.  McCullough tells us that the purpose of this exposition was to celebrate modern progress - as well as celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution.  This is a tricky thing to do ...celebrate the past as well as the future, don't you think?   Are such grand Expostions still staged?  Are they the same thing as what we refer to as the  World Fair today?  Have you ever been to one?  I don't remember anything as overwhelming as the completion of the tower for the 1889 exposition.  I can't even imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower, can you?  Weren't you surprised at the number of Parisians who detested it..protested against it.  This great Exposition was said to be the biggest and best ever.  The attendance exceeded 32 million!  Did anything ever surpass it?

Tomorrow we'll move on to Chapter 14, which describes the Exposition of 1900.  McCullough seems to have set 1900 as the ending period for his book, leaving me curious about what came next...

[BarbStAubrey]

Wow hohoho - back a chapter or two - remember we thought the Germans just up and left - OH NO - in order to get them out of Paris there was a war booty that France had to pay to Germany for loosing the war - my thinking this may have been usual and why the booty Germany was expected to pay after WWI but that is another issue - anyhow - the French were to pay Germany **5** BILLION Franks - an unprecedented sum that represented to France their annual budget for 2 and 1/2 years.

All the citizens of Paris got behind an effort that sounds like buying war bonds - something that involved investing in a loan. Actually it ended up being a good thing for many since the value of money was decreasing rapidly - IN ONE day they floated each investing in a national loan for 2 Billion which got Germany out of Paris leaving German troops with a small footprint till the remaining Debt was paid.

This so uplifted the patriotic fervor of France that they quickly and with a new energy rebuilt. Reading more about the Commune most of the French artists were in between - they agreed with the principles of the commune but felt the Empire or Monarchy was a calmer and more efficient government. They did not like the eruption of chaos created by the commune.

Victor Hugo lived among the poor that the commune represented - he was practically their leader - His parents divorced when he was quite young and he was shunted around from house to house regardless if he was with his father or mother - The father has a child by his mistress and so Mom Hugo left - in his middle childhood his father became a General of Napoleon's army while his mother had been a royalist but without her family's financial support - in his young life he moves between Besançon, Italy, Spain, Paris back and forth from left bank to right bank. Folks like Zola, who wrote a series of 14 novels about a poor family, back off from Hugo as do other artists. During the siege and till the following September Hugo actually fled to Luxemburg.  Gives a different slant to his blockbuster book about the war.

Were the Americans just oblivious to all of this - I cannot believe with as many books including this information that McCullough was not aware of what was going on - he certainly devoted a couple of chapters to this time of conflict in the history of Paris - was it that the Americans just did not participate - they came and took what they needed - made their contacts - got their art produced using the best artisans Paris had but ignored supporting France - and the only dip of the hat to the anti Semitic eruption in the book is one statement by one of the artists??!!  

It is as if the book was entitled The Greater Artistic Journey - although before the conflict it appeared he wrote of a greater involvement between the Americans and the French.

[JoanK]

BARB: "the Americans just did not participate - they came and took what they needed - made their contacts - got their art produced using the best artisans Paris had but ignored supporting France "

Maybe that's what living abroad does. Being "in" the country, but not "of" it, sort of floating on top of things. When I lived in Israel, I saw some Americans abroad living like that. Many of the people he talks about spoke little French, and probably hung out in little American cliques.

[Jonathan]

What's more symbolic of Paris than the Eiffel tower? It was intended to tower over the Exposition of 1889. And then to be dismantled? What a beehive of activity in Paris in those years known as the Belle Epoque. Thanks for pointing that out, JoanP, in your post. But just look at the questions in Barb's posts. In the one preceding it and the one following it:

'Were the Americans just oblivious to all of this?' 'It feels as if they were walled off from the artistic  world of Paris.'

It must have been tough to make it all happen in Paris without the Parisians. But it's like Pat said in an early post, the author had to stay focused. And he did it very well. In this book Paris serves as the wallpaper. The Greater Journey is a great example of historical research.  A splendid retirement project?

An even better answer, JoanK. I just read it.

[BarbStAubrey]

I hear you both - I am being stubborn about how if McCullough included the events of the war and the uprising, taking up almost 3 chapters of his book than why not at least a few sentences about the after life of getting Paris free of Germans and back on its feet with all the patriotic fervor and how the Americans handled it all -

We hear of some returning to find a different Paris but we hear nothing from the current crop of artists having admiration for or mixing with the Parisian artists much less being a part of the every day life in Paris.

E.g. if Parisians were feeling the losses in buying power because of the large drop in the value of a Frank than the Americans would have had to also feel the loss even if it meant more dollars to buy a Frank. No word about conserving because of inflation. Life moves along as if none of this matters.

It just feels so sterile to me - I understand book focus but then why include the uproar of war and its affect but not a word about the city's efforts to rebuild. It is as if McCullough got so caught up with Saint-Gaudens that the book lost its axis which had included names and some description of the French as revered guides or of Paris as a more than a back drop but rather as part of the setting to their daily life.

The most we hear about Paris is the names of streets where artists either lived or had studios. To me it is as if the life went out of the telling - like its time for bed so lets rush through this and only focus on the obstacles, successes and slights for the Americans.

[bellamarie]

JoanK, Jonathon, and Barb St.Aubrey,  I feel exactly as you are all feeling.  I actually got bored with this book because I was so looking forward to learning more about Paris and the interactions of the Americans coming to Paris.  Instead I felt bogged down with so many names that it became too confusing for me.  Mc seemed to begin to enlighten us of some things going on in Paris at the time, yet falls back to the same people he seems to favor, which is  John Singer Sargent, and Saint-Gaudens.  Chapter 13 barely touches on Mary Cassatt, and then it goes on and on about Sargent.  

I got the impression early on that only the wealthy Americans traveled to France to educate themselves, to promote their own interests and careers, and according to Mc they just did not seem to care to inconvenience themselves to learn the language, history or culture.  I personally felt the rich and spoiled are who Mc writes about.  

He lost me early on, and as much as I tried to stay with the book, it just couldn't hold my interest.  I feel I learned more about Paris when we read "I Always Loved You" rather than this book.  With "I Always Loved You, I felt like I was living among the artists, I could be a part of their lives, including the Parisians, the cafes, the museums, the apartments they lived in, and the surroundings outside their studios, I felt like I was sitting and walking among the Parisians in the Tuileries Gardens.  

Barb St.A.,

"Sterile"

is a good description of the feeling of Mc's writing.

Johnathan,

"In this book Paris serves as the wallpaper."

 

Imagine Paris being a wallpaper, when it's one of the most beautiful, shining cities in the world.  There is a saying that comes to my mind when I read your statement Jonathan, it comes from the movie "Dirty Dancing" with Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.  It is one of the most famous lines of the silver screen but actor Patrick Swayze, who played the handsome dance instructor Johnny Castle in the cult romance 'Dirty Dancing, hated saying 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner'.  I say, "Nobody puts Paris as a wallpaper."  

Do we know what the next book discussion will be, and when it will begin?

Ciao for now~

 

[JoanP]

Interesting posts!  We seem to have gone from delving into the results of McCullough's research and his discoveries from heretofore unknown information found in private letters and diaries, to feeling let down by what is not included here at the end.  I'm wondering what we expected.

  Maybe we need to ask - why did David McCullough chose  the 1830's  to begin his research, and then end with the great Exposition in 1900?  If we can figure out why he wrote the book, then maybe we can decide if he succeeded...

ps Another question that keeps running through my mind...regarding Saint-Gaudens- why so much about this artist?  Was it because of the biographical information made available in his wife Gussie's letters and diaries?  Or does McCullough find him representative of the Americans in Paris during this period? (Remember he is the son of immigrants, certainly not rich and spoiled...)

[BarbStAubrey]

Is it McCullough or the Americans - cannot tell but there appears to be a disconnect between those living and working in Paris after the War and uprising as compared to before - there is not much ewing and aweing about the Exposition from the Americans - sounds more like an event they attended and not a seminal Exposition of French and International advancements. Again, I cannot tell if it is what McCullough had to work with or if McCullough was not as all encompassing as in earlier chapters.

One thing may be why he is limited in American's drinking in Paris is there appears to be less of them - the med students no longer flock to Paris and American writers are not to be seen in numbers as after WWI - however, Henry James holds his place in France -

I looked for the high points in American from 1880 - 1900 and this is what I found

1881 Clara Barton organizes the American Red Cross... Harris, Uncle Remus - Helen Hunt  Jackson, A Century of Dishonor chronicles the federal government's treatment of Native Americans.
1883 In Boston, a production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe is lighted by electric incandescent light bulbs. - Brooklyn Bridge opened to the public... Twain, Life on the Mississippi - E. W. Howe, The Story of a Country Town
1885 Washington Monument dedicated after 36 years of construction... Howells, the Rise of Silas Lapham - Sidney Lanier, Poems
1886 Statue of Liberty dedicated in New York Harbor. Haymarket Riot in Chicago... Alcott, Jo's Boys - Lucretia P. Hale, The Peterkin Papers
1888 Great Blizzard of 1888 paralyzes the east coast and causes 400 deaths... Walt Whitman, November Boughs; Complete Poems and Prose
1889 The first  "Oklahoma land rush"...  Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West - Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
1890 Wounded Knee, South Dakota... Emily Dickinson, Poems
1892 Library of Congress says, Telephone service is put into operation between Chicago and New York
1893 Financial panic of 1893, World's Columbian Exhibition opens in Chicago
1894 Coxey's Army, unemployed men, marches on Washington. Kelley's Army, sets out from the West Coast;  one of them is Jack London...  Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson - Kate Chopin, Bayou Folk
1896 The first movie shown to the public in New York. The Klondike gold rush...Crane, George's Mother; The Little Regiment and Other Episodes of the American Civil War.
1898 Spanish-American War...  Henry James, The Turn of the Screw - Stephen Crane, The Open Boat and Other Tales of Adventure
1899 Scott Joplin publishes the "Maple Leaf Rag," the most famous of his works. Philippine insurrection; Howells and Twain oppose U. S. involvement... Kate Chopin, The Awakening

Interesting for different reasons we too had the poor worker and the out-of-work worker rebelling - we had an exposition, we had a financial crash - Differences - we were still exploring and settling the west and Alaska - we continued to talk and read about the Civil War long after the French put their Wars in their rear view mirror. Probably the difference is in the amount of devastation and deaths.

The Americans in Paris after the 1880 did not seem to arrive with barely enough money to last a year - they all seemed to have achieved some success and most were wealthy enough to afford the luxuries that Paris had to offer which included arranging for family and personal portraits. There was something about their association with Paris that reminded me as an analogy of the Robber Barons back in the U.S. - Taking, from Paris what they needed to be successful but not being a part of Paris or giving back to Paris their praise, gratitude or support.

[PatH]

I wonder how the Boit daughter who was in the shadow felt about the painting.  No one would really see her.

The link to the painting Ella posted in post #378 talks about why he might have painted the daughters this way.

http://jssgallery.org/paintings/Daughters_of_Edward_Darley_Boit.htm

From the article in the link:

None of the girls ever married, and both Flourennce and Jane, the two rear daughters, became to some extent mentally or emotionally disturbed. Mary Louisa and Julia, the front two girls, remained close as they grew older, and Julia, the youngest, became an accomplished painter in water-colors. (Ormond, P.56)

There was no way John Sargent could have know the psychology or what life held for these children when he painted them in 1882. Could this have been a fluke-- the way they were positioned, the rear daughters detached from us, the one leaning on the vase not even looking at us? Maybe. Was he just lucky? Possibly.  But it is my considered opinion that John Singer Sargent's gift of seeing the world was very special.

The writer goes on to say that he feels Sargent had an inarticulate gift for seeing, mostly unconsciously, the psychological truth of his sitters, often showing more than he was aware of himself.

That certainly fits here, the two troubled girls in the shadows, not looking at us, and the one who led the fullest life, little Julia, having her face fully lit.

[JoanK]

And I was going to post that the youngest was the only one showing personality in her face. The other faces are all idealized.

[PatH]

JoanP had a moment of serendipity finding The Hunchback of Notre Dame in her neighbor's little lending library.  I had one too.  I spent much of last week in Portland, OR, visiting daughters and grandchildren.  One evening Erick (SIL) and Kenner (Erick's stepfather) started a discussion about "King Cotton" and why the South's attempt to use cotton shortage as a weapon failed.  I had just read the extensive link Ella posted on this subject, so I was not only able to hold my own, but also contribute facts that Erick and Kenner didn't know (they knew a lot).

No one has ever brought up that subject in conversation with me before, and it happened just when I finally knew something about it.  (There was no way they could have known about our discussion.)

[Jonathan]

'But coming here has been a wonderful experience, surprising in many respects, one of them being to find how much of an American I am.' Auguste Saint-Gaudens

5.   In 1897 Augustus Saint-Audens returned to Paris after achieving highest honors in American art. 
  His son Homer insisted it was not illness that brought him back.  10 days later he returned home for good.  Why do you think McCullough chooses to concentrate on Saint-Audens?

I think it was a good choice. For many reasons. The first would be his work. It's so thoroughly American with its subjects and their many associatians. Everyone has seen one or more of his monuments. The Farragut. The Sherman. The Puritan. The Pilgrim. The Shaw Memorial. The Diana. The Hiawatha. The Adams Memorial. Have you noticed the resemblance between the face in the Adams and the face of the angel in the Shaw? And female faces in one or two other monuments. Obviously it was a face that Saint-Gaudens loved.

So I think the author found more drama in Saint-Gaudens' life than in the others. Or more available information. He perhaps more than the others must have loved Paris. He just had to keep going back. He had found his fountain of youth. And in the end just the sight of the Louvre and the Seine persuaded him to go on living. Born in Ireland, of an Irish mother and a French father, growing up in New York, he was the most American-spirited of them all. But he was obviously a man of many loves. Rodin took his hat off to him. And Saint-Gaudens felt sorry for Rodin's Balzac. A candle going out. The book gets somewhat melodramatic in the end.

And it turns out not all Americans were going to Paris. Not the Connecticut Yankee for one.  Quite a list of happenings in America, Barb. I was disappointed too, but I started enjoying the book after I got over the disappointment. Enough to hear that Paris was seductive, without being overwhelmed by its history. We'll have to look elsewhere for that.

[JoanP]

Path - is their a word to describe these little timely coincidences. There ought to be. Until then, we'll just have to settle for serendipity. Can just picture you explaining King Cotton, impressing your relatives.   I'm on a little ocean vacation for a view days...intend to struggle through Victor Hugo's Hunchback.  Promised self will return it to the little street library box when I return.

Bella - very soon will announce the September book club selection.  As you probably know, we've had to vote twice...voted are still coming in.  So close, we may have to choose two!
Will let you know as soon a as..