Alice Brisbane

Who she was

Alice Brisbane was a young American woman in Paris who posed for Marie in 1880 and 1881, studied at the Académie Julian, and from 1881 to 1883 was one of the girls who came to dinner and to the studio. The diary gives her age once: "dix-huit ans" on 27 April 1880 (088.0028), "d'une maigreur exquise". It never gives her family, her city or her later life. She is "la petite Brisbane" or just "Alice"; Marie writes the surname alone ("Brisbane", "Villevieille et Brisbane") when speaking of the atelier (091.0088, 094.0049).

A modern Spanish blog identifies her with Alice Brisbane (later Mrs Charles Thursby), the sitter of John Singer Sargent's 1898 portrait now at the Newark Museum, on the basis of a resemblance and a 1926 newspaper article that it shows as an image (Maria1884, "El atelier de mujeres. Personajes I"). That Alice Brisbane is recorded as a daughter of the socialist writer Albert Brisbane and as born in 1859 (Find a Grave) or 1856 (National Portrait Gallery catalogue), which would make her twenty or older in 1880, not eighteen (Find a Grave; Smithsonian, "Mrs. Charles Thursby (Alice Brisbane)"). Nothing in the diary supports or refutes the link, so it is not adopted here. The blog also reads a remark about "the excesses of her brother" in 099.0359 as Alice's own brother; in the text the brother is Jules Bastien-Lepage's.

Marie and Alice

The model, 1880. On 26 April 1880 Marie has no room at the atelier, and "une ravissante Américaine va poser pour moi à condition que je lui donne l'œuvre" (088.0016). The first sitting is the next day: Marie sees a likeness to Madame Récamier, pulls her hair up "à la Psyché", puts her in a batiste chemise with a pink ribbon and a straw-coloured scarf (088.0028). On 30 April, the Salon opening, she names her: "Ma petite Américaine qui s'appelle Alice Brisbane" (088.0040). Marie finishes the Récamier portrait on 22 April 1881 (091.0504); see below.

*Model for the Atelier, 1881. Alice and Villevieille are the "principaux modèles et complaisants à l'infini" for the large picture of the Julian studio; on 7 February 1881 they go with Marie to the Mirlitons exhibition (091.0088). Marie paints Alice's head for the picture in two hours, and Julian tells her to leave it alone (091.0130). On 10 January 1881 "la petite américaine Alice - Récamier*" arrives to hear Marie's troubles at the atelier (090.0567). Alice brings Marie news of the atelier during her illness in December 1881 (094.0049, 094.0074) and shows her own drawings in July 1881 (092.0340).

Companion, 1881 to 1883. She comes to the vernissage with Marie, Villevieille and Webb on 30 April 1882 (095.0001), is taken to Bastien-Lepage's brother Émile's with Marie on 22 June 1882 (095.0204), and dines on 21 December 1882 (097.0274). In early 1883 she is part of the group of the Canroberts' daughter, herself and Marie who take perspective lessons from the architect Émile Bastien-Lepage (098.0464, 098.0484, 099.0021), and Marie finds her "bonne enfant, assez intelligente" on a visit to the Louvre on 1 April 1883, though without the exchange of ideas she would have had with Breslau (099.0009). On 25 March, Alice is the first to tell Marie that the Salon has accepted her picture; she spends the night in Marie's room, and they talk about Bastien-Lepage until one in the morning (098.0567, 098.0581). Alice's own drawing is believed refused on 31 March (099.0005) but was in fact accepted: Tony Robert-Fleury writes four pages explaining he had tried to save it, and the English footnote of 099.0024 confirms the error (099.0569). On 21 April 1883 Marie poses as Madame Récamier "comme le portrait de David" while Alice wears Louis XV costume (099.0167).

The break, May to June 1883. On 4 May Marie is angry at Alice's remark that she is displeased because Marie told Émile that they were "occupées des débordements" of his brother (099.0359); on 17 May she writes of "de l'inimitié contre Alice, c'est une relation ternie et à jamais" (099.0467). Alice makes "tendres adieux" on 19 May (099.0479). In June Marie sends a letter of complaint, now lost ("lettre manque", 100.0067), and answers Alice's reply (100.0234, 100.0235); on 25 June she reflects that Alice, like Captain Blanc before her and the architect, has played the confidante in a house where there is always an intimate friend to whom everything is told (100.0229). The last mention is on 1 December 1883: "Les Canrobert me jugent bien et qui encore ? Alice ? mais ça ne compte pas" (102.0397).

In Marie's art

Marie painted her as Madame Récamier, begun 27 April 1880, finished 22 April 1881: Alice Brisbane en Récamier. She is also one of the models for the large L'Atelier Julian (1881). No image of either portrait of her is known.

Related entries

Sources