Matinée de Septembre (English: September Morn) is an oil painting on canvas completed in 1911 by the French artist Paul Émile Chabas. Painted over several summers, it depicts a nude girl or young woman standing in the shallow water of a lake, prominently lit by the morning sun. She is leaning slightly forward in an ambiguous posture, which has been read variously as a straightforward portrayal of protecting her modesty, huddling against the cold, or sponge bathing. It has also been considered a disingenuous pose permitting the "fetishisation of innocence".
September Morn was first exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1912, and although the identity of its first owner is unclear, it is certain that acquired the painting by the end of 1913. It was taken to Russia, and in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917 was feared lost. It resurfaced in 1935 in the collection of Calouste Gulbenkian, and after his death in 1955 was sold to a Philadelphia broker, who donated it anonymously to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in 1957. it is not on display.
From 1913 on, reproductions of the painting caused controversy in the United States. An art dealer in Chicago was charged with indecency and another in New York was targeted by anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, both after displaying September Morn. Over the next few years the work was reproduced in a variety of forms, including on pins and calendars, while censorship and art were debated in newspapers. Chabas' painting inspired songs, stage shows and films; eventually some 7 million reproductions were sold, though Chabas – who had not copyrighted September Morn – did not receive any royalties.
Although several women claimed to be the model for September Morn, Chabas never revealed her identity. He described the work as "all I know of painting", and responded positively to statements that it was his masterpiece. Later writers, however, have described the painting as kitsch, valuable only as a historic artifact.
Description
September Morn depicts, from an oblique point of view, a naked blonde girl or young woman standing ankle-deep in the water near the shoreline of a tranquil lake surrounded by hills. The figure is backlit by the morning sun, but fully visible, if a little darker than her surroundings. Her arms are folded about her body, her right arm passing below her breasts as she grasps her left elbow, while her left arm conceals her pubic area. This pose has been variously interpreted as the subject protecting herself from the cold, covering her modesty, or sponge bathing, or as the artist's "fetishisation of innocence".
Reviews in 1912 noted that the painting was dominated by grays: those of her shaded body, the blue-grays of the September water, the green-grays of the sky, and the pink-grays of the hills behind her. The art critic François Thiébault-Sisson described this as evoking the morning, the young subject preparing to bathe while "light grey vapours are still floating over the lake". This oil painting on canvas measures , and Chabas's signature is located in the lower left.
Background
Chabas
By the time he painted September Morn, Paul Émile Chabas already had an established reputation as an academic artist. He regularly submitted to the Paris Salon, first participating in 1886. He won a third class medal in the Salon of 1895, and four years later won the Prix National for his painting Joyeux ébats, which earned him a gold medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle and was acquired by the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes. In subsequent years Chabas spent the winters working in Paris, while he passed his summers painting young women along the shores of rivers, lakes, and seas. In 1902 he was made a Chevalier in the Legion of Honour.
Chabas studied under artists such as Tony Robert-Fleury, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Albert Maignan. Although his earlier works were generally portraits, most of the painter's later production consisted of nude girls and young women. The lakes and rivers of France were common settings for his paintings, which gave prominence to the interaction of light with the models and their surroundings. September Morn is typical of his style.
J. Valmy-Baysse, in a 1910 overview of the artist, attributes Chabas's style to the painter's time at the family summer home along the Erdre; he identifies the "grace of adolescence, its undefinable charm, [and] its chaste nudity" of the models with Chabas's reminiscences of his youth. The art historian Bram Dijkstra has argued otherwise, stating that "no artist was more assiduous in exploiting the prurient possibilities of the woman-child" than Chabas, whom he considers to have "emphasized analogies of nude little girls and the familiar poses of vanity or physical arousal given to adult women".Quoted in .
Nudity and art
Female nudes were the dominant subject of painting in French Salons at the end of the 19th century. Female models had become more common than male ones beginning in the early 19th century, first serving allegorical roles or as muses, but eventually becoming individuals "who could be classified and whose history could be written". In academic art – such as that of Chabas – the models were not portrayed as they were, but as idealized nudes, based on classical ideals; the body hair of women models, for instance, would not be shown, and the pubic area was rendered smoothly. The hostess Suzanne Delve, who later claimed to have stood for September Morn, said that models were willing to provide "service to art" by posing nude for such works.
Not all forms of nude imagery were acceptable in France. The end of the 19th century had seen the introduction of various laws against pornography, images of adults and children meant to "provoke, incite, or stimulate debauchery". Works targeted were initially those meant for wide distribution (and thus, the lower class). However, the Australian art historian Fae Brauer writes that the line between art and pornography was blurred by the early 1910s; even tighter laws, introduced in 1908, had resulted in censorship of modernist works. For instance, three paintings by Kees van Dongen (including two of his daughter) were rejected from the Salon d'Automne between 1911 and 1913 on grounds of indecency.
The United States had, since colonial times, generally been more puritan in terms of art than Europe. In the mid- and late-19th century the country's government implemented laws against obscenity, such as the Tariff of 1842 which banned the importing of foreign works of art deemed obscene. By the end of the 19th century, an uneasy understanding had been reached: museums could hold works depicting nudity, but commercial works (including photographs of artwork) could be – and were – confiscated. Tensions remained over the issue of whether nudes represented European-style sophistication (a trait important to the upper-class) or encouraged behaviors which threatened families and encouraged "impure imaginations".
Creation; identity of model Chabas began work on September Morn in mid-1910 at Talloires on the shores of Lake Annecy in Haute-Savoie, some south-east of Paris. The model, whom he never identified but referred to as "Marthe", was well known to his family. Owing to the financial situation of the sixteen-year-old's family, "Marthe" had to work to support her mother. On the first day of painting, "Marthe" entered the morning water and instinctively recoiled at its chilliness. Chabas approved of this pose, saying that it was "perfect". Over the course of two summers he worked on the painting, half an hour every morning. The work was completed on a September morning in 1911, giving the painting its name. In 1935, responding to claims that "Marthe" was living in poverty, Chabas explained that she had continued posing for him until she was 28, when she married a rich industrialist, and that she was now aged 41, plump, and had three children.
Numerous women have claimed or been claimed to be the model, some presenting different versions of events. In 1913, a Miss Louise Buckley, performing in Eugene, Oregon, said that she had been paid $1,000 and posed in the artist's studio. The Paris-based artist Jules Pages, meanwhile, stated that the woman depicted in September Morn had been a 25-year-old of good character who earned her living as an artist's model, but had gone into hiding after the controversy over the painting. Other claimants included a Swedish model named Gloria and a variety actress named Irene Shannon; the latter made the claim in the lead-up to a vaudeville skit called "November Mourning".
In 1937, twenty-four years after September Morn caused controversy in the United States, the Parisian hostess Suzanne Delve declared that she had been the model. In her account, Chabas – who had known her since she was an infant – had her pose nude in his studio and later painted Lake Annecy in her absence. Delve described her nervousness at the first session, her mother chatting to her to distract her mind while Chabas's wife played soothing music on the piano. She said she took her pose "instinctively" and that the controversy over the painting had ruined her life, as no Frenchman would want to marry a woman marred by scandal.
Yet another version is presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in their 1966 catalogue of French holdings, including September Morn. According to this telling, Chabas completed the painting over three summers at Lake Annecy, though his peasant model served only as the basis for the figure's body. The head was based on a sketch of a young American, Julie Phillips, which Chabas had completed upon observing her and her mother dining in Paris; finding her profile to his liking, he silently drew her, then introduced himself and "apologized for his presumption".
History
Paris Salon and first sale Chabas first exhibited September Morn in the Paris Salon of April 14 to June 30, 1912. Because he did not plan to sell it, he gave a price of 50,000 francs ($10,000) – more than he expected anybody to pay. For the painting, and his Portrait of Mme. Aston Knight, Chabas won a Medal of Honor, receiving 220 of 359 possible votes. At the Salon, the painting was uncontroversial, and it was soon reprinted in American publications such as Town & Country and The International Studio.
Sources are unclear as to the painting's provenance after the Salon. According to the Met, the New York-based Philip (or Philippe) Ortiz, manager of the New York Branch of Braun and Company, purchased it in late 1912. According to a 1933 report in the Middletown Times Herald, he paid 12,000 francs ($2,400) for the work, but never brought the painting back to the United States. However, Brauer suggests that Ortiz sent it to his gallery in New York, where it caused a controversy. According to Time, the painting was acquired by 1913, after the painting was returned to Chabas.
A 1935 article in the Montreal Gazette, meanwhile, stated that the original September Morn had yet to go to the United States, and that Chabas had sold it directly to Mantashev. According to Chabas, this was after an American approached him to purchase the painting, but was unwilling to pay the asking price. In her memoirs, Vogue editor Edna Woolman Chase recounted how Ortiz had arranged for numerous reproductions to be made and sent to New York, and that – although he had been interested in acquiring the original – he had been unable to do so. Although it is possible that the original did not cross the Atlantic by 1913, it is clear that reproductions did.
Controversy and popularity
Chicago