September morning

September Morning depicts a naked blonde girl or young woman standing ankle-deep in water near the shoreline of a calm lake surrounded by hills. The figure is illuminated by the morning sun and is fully visible. Her arms are folded around her body, her right arm extends below her breasts, grabbing her left elbow, while her left arm hides her pubic area. This posture has been interpreted in different ways - as protecting itself from the cold or as using water in this way.

Nudity and Art

Female nudity was the dominant painting in French salons in the late 19th century. Female models began to spread more than male ones from the beginning of the 19th century, first serving as muses , but, ultimately, becoming people "who could be classified and whose story could be written "in academic art - such as Shabas art. In Shabas, models were portrayed as idealized women of the nude genre, based on classical ideals; the hair on the body of female models, for example, was not shown, and the pubic area was displayed smoothly. The owner, Susanna Delve, later claimed that the models were ready to provide a “service to art”, posing naked for such work.

Not all forms of nudity were acceptable in France. At the end of the 19th century, various laws were introduced against pornography, images of adults and children, designed to "provoke, incite or incite debauchery." The works were intended for wide distribution, even for the lower class. However, Australian art historian Fay Brower writes that "the line between art and pornography was blurred by the early 1910s"; even stricter laws introduced in 1908 led to the censorship of modernist works. For example, three paintings by Kees van Dongen (including his two daughters) were rejected by the D'Automne salon between 1911 and 1913 due to obscenity.

The United States, since colonial times, on the whole, more than Europe, has held Puritan views in art. In the mid and late 19th century, the government implemented laws against obscenity, such as tariff 1842, which prohibited the import of foreign works of art considered obscene. By the end of the 19th century, a difficult understanding was reached: museums could store works depicting nudity, but commercial works (including photographs of works of art) could and were confiscated. Tensions remained in the question of whether the nudity represented the sophistication of the European style (a trait important to the upper class) and whether it encouraged behavior that evoked an "unclean imagination."

Chabas began work on September Morning in mid-1910 in Talloire on the shores of Lake Annecy in Haute Savoie , about 500 kilometers southeast of Paris. The model, which he never identified, but called "Marta," was well known to his family. Due to the financial situation of the family, sixteen-year-old Martha had to work to support her mother. On the first day of work on the painting, Martha entered the morning water and instinctively recoiled from her cold. Shabas endorsed the gesture, saying that it was "perfect." For two summer seasons, he worked on the picture for half an hour every morning. The work was completed on a September morning in 1911. This September morning gave the painting its name.

In 1935, responding to allegations that Martha was living in poverty, Shabas explained that she continued to pose for him until she was 28, when she married a wealthy industrialist, and that she was now 41 years old, was chubby and had three children.

Some women were approved as models, some represented different versions of events. In 1913, Miss Louise Buckley, speaking in Eugene, Oregon, said she was paid $ 1,000 and posed in the artist's studio. Parisian artist Jules Page, meanwhile, said that the woman depicted in September Morning was a 25-year-old woman of good character who earned her living as a model artist, but disappeared after a debate about the painting. Other applicants included a Swedish model named Gloria and a pop actress named Irene Shannon; the latter made a complaint ahead of the vaudeville skit called "November Mourning."

In 1937, twenty-four years after the September Morning caused controversy in the United States, Paris hostess Suzanne Delve declared that she was a model. According to her, she posed for Shabas, who had known her since infancy, in his studio; he later painted Lake Annecy in her absence. Delve described his nervousness in the first session, her mother chatting with her to distract her thoughts, while Shabas's wife played soothing music on the piano. She said that she took her pose "instinctively" and that the dispute over the picture ruined her life, since no Frenchman would want to marry a woman clouded by a scandal.

Another version is presented by the Metropolitan Museum in their catalog of 1966 French funds, including September Morning. According to this story, Chabas completed the painting in three summers on Lake Annecy, although his peasant model served only as the basis for the body of the figure. The head was drawn based on a sketch of the young American Julia Phillips , which Chabas completed, watching her and her mother having dinner in Paris; Having found her profile that suits his taste, he silently painted it, then introduced himself and "apologized for his arrogance."

Paris Salon and first sales

Chabas first exhibited "September Morning" at the Paris Salon from April 14 to June 30, 1912. Since he did not plan to sell the painting, he gave the price of 50,000 francs ($ 10,000) - more than he expected. For the painting and portrait of Ms. Aston Knight, Shabas received an honorary medal and 220 of the 359 possible votes. In the salon, the picture was approved, and soon it was reprinted in American publications such as Town & Country and The International Studio.

Sources are unclear regarding the origin of the painting after the salon. According to Met, Philip Ortiz, manager of the New York affiliate of Braun and Company, bought it at the end of 1912. According to a 1933 report in the Middletown Times Herald, he paid 12,000 francs ($ 2,400) for his work, but never returned the painting to the United States. However, Brower suggests that Ortiz sent her to his gallery in New York, where she caused controversy. According to Time , the painting was acquired by Leon Mantashev in 1913 after the painting was returned to Shabas. Meanwhile, a Montreal Gazette article of 1935 stated that the first September Morning had not yet gone to the United States and that Shabas sold it directly to Mantashev. According to Shabas, this happened after an American asked him to buy a painting, but did not want to pay the asking price. In her memoirs, Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase told how Ortiz organized numerous reproductions and sent them to New York, and that although he was interested in acquiring the original, he could not. Although it is possible that the original did not cross the Atlantic by 1913.

The distribution of the picture and its reproduction in the culture

A 1937 article in the Salt Lake Tribune stated that after the September 1913 disputes, September Morning reproductions were shown “on the front page of every newspaper in the country.” Ortiz demanded that these newspapers pay a fee and mention his copyright, otherwise he would be fined in the amount of from 500 to 1000 dollars; Chase recalled that Vogue was one of those who were accused. These newspaper reproductions, however, were sometimes censored. Fred L. Seattle Star’s Bowalt, covering a local art exhibition, explained his newspaper’s rationale for such censorship: “for humane and other reasons [...] The artist painted a star in a short skirt. He didn’t want to do this. He suffered. But we made him to do it. "

Lithographic copies of September Morning were mass-produced for wide sale, continuing the success that followed the scandal and were widely hung in private homes. Reproductions were shown on various products, including cigar ribbons, postcards, bottle openers, figurines, key rings for hours and boxes of chocolates; The model was also popular as a tattoo. “September Morning” was the first nude used for calendars, and by the end of the 1950s it appeared on calendars among 1 million. The couplet related to the work of Shabas: “please don’t think I'm bad or brave, but there, where deep, terribly cold, "was widespread.

September Morning also influenced a number of films.

Russia and Paris

Oil baron Leon Mantashev purchased the original “September Morning” in 1913 at a price of $ 10,000 and brought it with him to Russia. With the beginning of the October Revolution, they were afraid to destroy the picture. After Mantashev’s flight from Russia, parts of his impressive collection, which were considered artistically valuable, were sent to museums, but there was no information about such works as “September Morning”. By 1933, Shabas was looking for information about the fate of his work, which The Milwaukee Journal offered to "hang in some kind of crowded Russian room." According to the magazine, "its owner, perhaps, completely ignores world fame." At that time, several American galleries claimed ownership of the original painting.

The picture, however, was safe; Mantashev secretly took her out of the country. He reportedly “tore her out of the frame” when the revolution broke out. In the early 1930s, desperate for money, he sold the September Morning to Armenian collector and philanthropist Galust Gyulbenkyan for $ 30,000; it was the last picture he owned. The United Press reporter found a picture framed in a tondo in the Parisian house of Gyulbenkian in 1935. There she hung with the works of artists such as Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne. By 1937, “September Morning” was exhibited at the Luxembourg Museum, between works Jean-Francois Raffaelli and Eugene Career. After the death of Gulbenkian in 1955, the painting was acquired by Wildenstein and Company of New York.

In 1913, Shabas stated that he was “upset and humiliated” by the September Morning dispute, although he later expressed more positive views. He said that his work was “all I know about painting,” and he answered positively to statements that it was his masterpiece. In a 1914 interview, he explained that he was not going to sell the painting, since it was “his wife’s favorite painting.” At the time of his death in 1937, Shabas had only one painting in his room: a memory picture of the painting. He boasted, "If I had never seen her from the day I drew it, I could make a perfect copy." However, without a copyright in the work, he did not receive any royalties from marketing insanity in the United States; he recalled: "No one was attentive enough, even to send me a box of cigars."

• History of the painting
• Postcards based on “September Morning”