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The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their SalonsCome right in and sit down. You are invited to a soirée at the home of Henriette Herz in Berlin. What? You have never heard of her? How about the salon of Rahel Levin Verhagen? Or, perhaps, Geneviève Straus, Ada Leverson, or Berta Szeps Zuckerkandl?
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| Anna Dorothea Therbusch, Henriette Herz as Hebe, 1778, oil on canvas, Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz (Photo courtesy of The Jewish Museum) |
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Since the guest lists included famous writers, composers, performers, and artists—sometimes even prime ministers and royalty—you might jump at the chance. I know I would. Conversations at these gatherings ran the gamut, from war, feminism, and socialism, to the latest music, art, and fashions. Here people made intellectual and artistic contacts, but also met friends and life partners. You could have encountered Liszt, the Mendelssohns, the Meyerbeers, Klimt, Proust, Wilde, Paganini, and Picasso, just to name a few.The current exhibition at the Jewish Museum enables us to observe the salons of 14 Jewish women, held from the 1780s to the 1930s in European capitals, New York, and Los Angeles. The curators focus on the central position held by these salons in the development of new art, music, literature, and political alliances during this span of 150 years. The show is more or less chronological, in sections ranging from the salons' origins to specific music, art, literary, or politically centered ones.
The exhibition illuminates the fact that Jewish women, even wealthy ones, had two strikes against them: gender and religion. Denied access to higher education, public office, and the vote, some reacted by starting educational and cultural forums right in their own homes. Even their Jewish education—separate from that of men—was confined to domestic quarters. For this reason, among others, the number of Jewish women hosting salons was disproportionate. Photographs, art works, and music re-create these salons, with an accompanying audiotape adding musical excerpts, readings, and quotations from attendees.
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| Florine Stettheimer, Soirée, 1917-19, oil on canvas, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven. (Photo courtesy of The Jewish Museum) |
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Everyone knows about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas's Paris salon, attended by Picasso, Matisse, and dozens of other young, avant-garde artists. Most have heard of Fanny Mendelssohn, sister of Felix and wife of the court painter, Wilhelm Hensel. But few are aware that her salon drew as many as 200 guests on Sunday afternoons in Berlin.The exhibition starts with the well-known Man Ray photograph of Stein and Toklas in their Paris atelier in 1923, surrounded by paintings that would soon become icons of avant-garde art. Then, we are transported back in time to the first salons on record. As early as 1618, before Jewish women started their salons, Madame de Rambouillet began welcoming guests into her private Paris residence. Madame Geoffrin held a salon that included personages as important as Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It is no accident that Jewish salonières also came into their own at the end of the 18th century, coinciding with the Enlightenment.The first Jewish salonière (or "muse") was Henriette Herz (1764-1847). Numerous young intellectuals and scientists attended her Berlin gatherings. So important was Madame Herz that she—like Queen Marie-Antoinette, a few years earlier—was depicted in 1778 as the goddess Hebe. This portrayal of a Jewish woman in an allegorical pagan guise reflected the acculturation of Jews into mainstream German culture, known as the Jewish Enlightenment movement, or haskalah. Other portraits and documents of Herz, along with Rahel Levin Varnhagen (1771-1833), are found in the first part of the exhibit.
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| Man Ray, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in the Atelier at 27 rue de Fleurus, 1923, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven. © 2005 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. (Photo courtesy of The Jewish Museum) |
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Following are selections from salons of Fanny von Arnstein (1758-1818) and her sister, Cäcilie von Eskeles (1760-1836). The two gifted musicians moved from Berlin to Vienna, establishing a Society of Music Lovers that sponsors public concerts to this day!Perhaps the most intriguing musical salons were those of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) and Amalie Beer (1767-1854). Fascinating to see are the numerous drawings by Fanny's husband, Wilhelm, including Fanny, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Heinrich Heine, and Clara Schumann. Beer, the mother of Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864), used her considerable fortune to benefit Jewish and Prussian philanthropies, as well as to host one of the most lavish musical salons in Europe.Some salons—such as those of the British Ada Leverson (1862-1933) and the French Geneviève Halévy Straus (1849-1926)—specialized in literature. Oscar Wilde was a close friend of Leverson, who provided him a haven during the scandals of his trials. Her London salon attendees also included Aubrey Beardsley, Max Beerbohm, and many others. Leverson was herself a writer and essayist of note, esteemed particularly for her sharp wit, satires, and parodies.As for Straus, she was the daughter of Fromentin Halévy (composer of La Juive), and wife of Georges Bizet from 1869 until his premature death in 1875. In 1886, she married Emile Straus, and soon turned their townhouse into a well-attended Paris salon. Among her guests were Edgar Degas and Marcel Proust. Like Leverson, Straus refused to let unpopular political sentiments close down her gatherings. Indeed, her salon became known as a center for pro-Dreyfus forces, with Emile Zola a regular attendee (even though Degas and other anti-Dreyfusards left, never to return). Proust immortalized the strikingly beautiful Straus as the Duchesse de Guermantes in his À la Recherche du Temps Perdu.Moving into the 19th century, the "Salons of Modernism" section includes Berta Zuckerkandl's Vienna home. Zuckerkandl (1864-1945) hosted many of the Austrian avant-garde, including Gustav Klimt and other "Secessionists," and Parisian luminaries such as Auguste Rodin, Eugene Carrière, and Maurice Ravel. Many Viennese poets and authors of new literary styles, such as Arthur Schnitzler and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, also met at Zuckerkandl's.
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| Geneviève Straus, 1889, photograph, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Départment des Estampes, Paris. (Photo courtesy of The Jewish Museum) |
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Margherita Sarfatti (1880-1961) and Anna Kuliscioff (c. 1885-1925) both held political salons in Italy. They represent the right and the left, respectively. Sarfatti, linked with Mussolini, was a sharp art critic who influenced Fascism's lenient policies towards modern art. She had one of the most extensive collections of modern Italian art, and her salon drew most of the Futurists, including Carrà, Russolo, and F.T. Marinetti. Kuliscioff's Milan salon embraced social justice and anarchy. She spent time in prison because of her political activities and her long association with the Italian Socialist party. The last section of the show, "Expatriates and Avant-Gardes," includes Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) and Florine Stettheimer (1871-1944). Both of these salonières provided home bases for foreigners and refugees. Stettheimer's work is referred to here as "The Jewish Rococo." She never married, lived with her mother and two of her sisters most of her life, and held one of the most sophisticated salons in New York City. Stettheimer purposely recreated an 18th-century atmosphere, and depicts many of her famous guests in her own charming, pastel-colored paintings (many of which are included in the show). But there is little of Stein's salon here, perhaps because she is already so well known.Last in the exhibit is Salka Viertal's (1889-1978) salon, called here the "salon at the other end of the world" (in Santa Monica, Calif.). Viertal's salon attracted actors, directors, and writers, such as Brecht, Garbo, Thomas Mann, and Arnold Schoenberg. Two excellent films—one recreating Straus's salon with Proust and other notables, and one on Salka Viertal's, featuring Brecht and Mann—enrich the show.So, join in history's most exciting and glamorous gatherings of important artists, literati, and composers. The only thing better would be to have been there—which is exactly what the current show at the Jewish Museum made me want to do!"The Power of Conversation: Jewish Women and Their Salons" continues through July 10 at the Jewish Museum, located at 1109 Fifth Avenue (the entrance is on 92nd Street). The museum's hours are Sunday-Wednesday, 11 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (with pay-what-you-wish admission after 5 p.m.); and Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. It is closed Saturday and major Jewish holidays. Admission is $10 for adults; $7.50 for students and seniors over 65; free for children under 12.Art historian Greta Berman has been on the liberal arts faculty since 1979.
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