The Sirens (Trois Sirènes) – Claudel, Reves & Chanel.

"The Sirens ( Trois Sirènes) – Claudel, Reves & Chanel." -- an Art object in Dallas embodies a Feminine Artistic Legacy by Suza Kanon

Today's blog is about the sex lives of 3 different beautiful, intelligent women who were all deeply passionate about art & its legacy: Camille Claudel, Wendy Reves & Coco Chanel. Although though they may have never met during their lifetimes, the ladies all came together at the base of a staircase in a lush estate near the village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin on the French Riviera. All three were lovely models, professionally involved in art; but where they differ is their financial & legal relationships with their lovers & family.

Really this story describes the adventures of a white marble sculpture inspired by a stunning female artist who wasn’t given the right to choose her own path or handle financial affairs. Certainly our society has come a long way from back then and more respect is given to the abilities of our females… or has it? Let’s look at the stories of the three sirens and you can decide for yourself.

i.

[[portrait of Chanel by Marie Laurencin (1923)]]

Coco (1883-1971) was a former singer and model better known as a artist/ fashion designer from France whose work is shown in art museums & worn by women across the globe. Chanel’s lover Bend’Or, the 2nd Duke of Westminster, asked her to marry him (he had recently left one of his many wives). Coco declined, but the Duke still built his mistress a villa on the French Riviera. She said ‘Everyone marries the Duke of Westminster. There are a lot of duchesses, but only one Coco Chanel." The couple continued seeing each other polyamorously for years alongside their other relationships.

[[coco & bend’or]]

The Duke trusted Chanel to oversee the design of the La Pausa estate & gardens and work closely with the architect Robert Streitz during its construction during the late 1920's. [TUMBLR] Her desires were met and no one questioned her sanity regarding where she drew her inspirations or the legacy she chose to leave in this building. Coco after all is short for “coquette,” a French term for a kept woman.

Design elements were based on “the twelfth-century staircase and archways of Aubazine (the Catholic orphanage she grew up in which Chanel) sent her architect to view when he was designing her Riviera house of La Pausa” [Picardie]. She asked her Duke to build her a house that reminded her of her childhood and he did so with love.

[[INTERIOR of La Pausa showing the Rodin sculpture at base of Staircase on the left]]

However she didn’t just take from her lovers, she also gave generously. Around 1920, she allowed one of her consorts to live in another of her other homes. Chanel allowed the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky to bring his wife & children to stay in her French country estate. The generosity was so that he might both escape the revolution in his home country & more importantly so that he might finish the composition of his symphony “the Rites of Spring.” Her patronage may have been erotically tinged, but she was a woman in a financial position to invest in his artistic legacy.

Coco maintained one of her many residences at the villa La Pausa and found romantic comfort in designer and illustrator Paul Iribe. He was engaged to her November 1933, but before they could be married, "he collapsed on the tennis court of La Pausa" from heart failure and died. [francetoday.com]

Chanel was never again engaged to be married after Paul, but to preparefor her autumn years she worked out an arrangement in 1954 with her old business nemesis, Pierre Wertheimer. He would maintain ownership of “Parfums Chanel.” In return, Wertheimer agreed to an unusual arrangement proposed by Chanel herself, attempting to revive her youthful years as the kept woman of wealthy men. Wertheimer would pay for all of Coco’s expenses from the large to the trivial for as long as she lived. [Mazzeo]

[[Chanel in a TREE at La Pausa]]

It should be remembered that Coco is the designer that popularized women wearing pants, and is also known for spending as she saw fit until she died. As for Coco’s long time lover the Duke of Westminster who financed the building of La Pausa, the notorious playboy got married several more times by the time of his death in 1953. During his life, he made sure his beautiful lover was safe and well cared for. Still she was a kept woman & the property at La Pausa did not belong to her.

Coco’s lover/benefactor died leaving her to survive on her talent and the good graces of friends & family.

After the Duke’s death, the villa had been sold to a couple named Wendy & Emery Reves. Here is where we find our real story taking place at La Pausa on this 'stage' built by Chanel, where a very special piece of art would come to live for a time.

[[EXTERIOR of Villa La Pausa at Roquebrune]]

ii.

Lets take a moment to introduce you to the sculpture that inspired this entire research project, “The Sirens.”

At the bottom of this staircase inspired by a woman’s childhood sits a pedestal. It is the smooth, white sculpture showing Rodin’s most talented female model and protege. It draws the eye of all who pass up the nearby steps. According to an archivist from the Dallas Museum of Art where the work is housed, the marble sculpture was owned by the couple before their move into Coco’s villa on the French Riviera.

The Sirens (Trois Sirènes) 17 x 17 1/2 x 12 in (c. 1888) by Auguste Rodin featuring model Camille Claudel (in the holdings of the Dallas Museum of Art, Texas)

The sculpture is made of sparkling milky white crystalline marble, polished smooth. Its small size is barely over a foot and tall and wide, sitting perched on its pedestal awaiting inspection at the base of the stairs. The face of a woman seems to stretch up for a breath of air, drawing it in ecstatically. She arises from an entanglement of the sea, and the Sapphic energy of two other women.

Some myths interpret sirens as a trio of singing gorgons, human-like in their sexuality but monstrous in their destructive powers of persuasion. Sisters known for seducing sailors and inciting them to crash their vessels into the rocks, so that they might cling & drag the weaker men to a watery death. The sculptor Rodin gives his three dimensional interpretation of sirens distinctly gorgeous physical bodies, free of fins or feathers.

The fluid tactile quality of the stone used in the sculpture mimics the waves enveloping the female forms. The moment captured by the artist exudes sensuality. Are the women swimming in water or their own orgasmic climax?

In a way, the sculpture was returning to the village of Roquebrune with Reves. The artist Auguste Rodin had been known to holiday in the village during the time of his affair with fellow sculptor, Camille Claudel. Her form had inspired the body of the siren, his passion for her evident in the permanency of stone. Over 60 years after the sculpture’s creation, the model for this siren had returned to the village by the sea in marble form.

iii.

Camille (1864–1943) was a model for the masterwork in marble by Rodin “The Sirens” shown above in addition to several of his other works. More impressively, Camille Claudel herself attended art academy in a time around 1881 when most schools would not accept women. She learned & worked in the studios of Alfred Boucher & Auguste Rodin. Her own marble sculptures were expressively detailed and showed the influence of her teachers, now translated by her feminine hands into sculptures created from the universal hardness of the same marble. Claudel’s sculptural work was exhibited in galleries, salons and collected.

[[Camille as seen by her teacher Boucher, estimated age 19]]

(In 1885) “Rodin asked Claudel to become a studio assistant. By working as Rodin's apprentice, Claudel had the chance to study the nude figure, an unusual opportunity for a woman in the 19th century, but one that gave the artist a profound understanding of anatomical nuances. Claudel modeled hands and feet for Rodin's Burghers of Calais and posed for figures in his Gates of Hell.” [mistressesoftheuniverse.blogspot.com]

[[Claudel in the WORKSHOP]]

After Rodin began sleeping with his female student, he recreated Camille’s young nude body in his sculpture. If this marble sculpture was created before 1888, the model would have been 24 and her teacher 48.

“Rodin engaged the carver Jean Escoula to begin a marble version (1887), in which the group was to enlarged to a height of just over 17 inches.” [Christies.com] The sculpted artwork began its own existence and went on the road travelling across the world.

[[Claudel in PROFILE]]

“As an independent work (it was) shown at the 1889 Rodin-Monet exhibition (at Galerie Georges Petit, Paris)… The group is (now) known in different sizes and materials: marble versions are (currently) exhibited in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, The Cleveland Museum, the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark and in the Thiel Gallery, Djurgarden, Stockholm” [rodin-web.org]

Let us not forget there is also a marble version of “The Sirens” in the Reves Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art. But the sculpture’s tumultuous path hasn’t taken it to Texas yet in this part of the story, we’ll get there later.

"The Sirens" was first exhibited as "Niobe" before becoming "The Three Sirens" in 1900. In the catalogue for that year's immense Rodin exhibition (at the Paris World Exhibition), they were related to a more recent love-death concoction, the Rhine maidens of Richard Wagner's operas… At least five marble versions survive, all created by studio assistants in Rodin's … atelier” [dallasmuseumofart.org]

“In 1914 the artwork could have been shown in San Francisco. It also could be the fourth marble mentioned in The Bronzes of Rodin: Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin II by Antoinette le Normand-Romain.” [email from DMA curatorial archivist MacLeod]

The sculpture had gone through much traveling before it came to La Pausa with the Reves. This sculpture’s creation started as a study for the larger Rodin work, “The Gates of Hell” and in the process eroded the innocence of the little known female artist, leading to events that put her very sanity in question.

“The Gates of Hell, a monumental portal covered with sculptural relief (standing at almost 20 feet tall), was Rodin's first commission from the French government.” [VIncent]

“Rodin conceived Trois Sirènes, like many of his finest multi-figure groupings, for The Gates of Hell, where the three entwined women appear half-way up on the left-hand door... Rodin is reputed to have written "The sea is the source of music." To which his patron Dr. Max Linde later replied, "Three sounds are needed to make a chord, so he represented the sounds by the three forms of intertwined women surging out of the sea’” [Christies.com]

“As he imagined these women, they represent ‘three powerful forms moving like a wave which has thrown them at the hero's feet, sisters--through the momentum and the rhythm--to the Rhine [Maidens], murmuring the songs of the world which he will transcribe in his verse. An admirable allusion drawn from the very heart of nature!’ [Normand-Romain]

Such critical accolades for the work of the artist were inspired by his model. Could Rodin have created this work without the inspiration of Camille Claudel? Is it possible to for a woman to be redeemed at in her second life as a work of art?

The sculpture carried on, but the model Camille Claudel’s ten year affair with the married artist twenty years her senior “ended unhappily in 1893, in part owing to Rodin's reluctance to abandon his lifelong companion Rose Beuret.” [Vincent]

[[detail of CLAUDEL's sculpture, AGE of MATURITY]]

Camille Claudel began to feel public opinion had turned on her work. Several of her exhibits were censored or shut down entirely for their unclothed depictions of the human form. Finally, she had a melt down and destroyed most her own artwork. She may have felt isolated and persecuted being the rare female artist in a male dominated field. Her lover and mentor had refused to leave his wife & she overreacted. Camille had a punk rock moment and needed to break something for cathartic reasons (only 90 pieces are still known to exist today). Her family became concerned. In her day, a woman’s legal affairs & finances could be controlled by older male relatives.

“In 1893, because Rodin's work and stature occupied front stage in French culture, Claudel secluded herself in her studio to disassociate herself from him and to try to establish her own reputation. Her love for portraying the human form resulted in certain sculptures that the state and an infuriated press censored as overly sensual and inappropriate for public display.” [mistressesoftheuniverse.blogspot.com]

“After 1905 Claudel appeared to be mentally ill. She destroyed many of her statues, disappeared for long periods of time, and exhibited signs of paranoia and was diagnosed as having schizophrenia. She accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and of leading a conspiracy to kill her. After the wedding of her brother (who had supported her until then) in 1906 and his return to China, she lived secluded in her workshop.

Her father, who approved of her career choice, tried to help her and supported her financially. When he died on 2 March 1913, Claudel was not informed of his death. On 10 March 1913 at the initiative of her brother, she was admitted to the psychiatric hospital [a WEEK after the death of her father, 20 years after her break up with Rodin] ... The form read that she had been "voluntarily" committed, although her admission was only signed by a doctor and her brother. There are records to show that while she did have mental outbursts, she was clear-headed while working on her art…

For a while, the press accused her family of committing a sculptor of genius. Her mother forbade her to receive mail from anyone other than her brother. The hospital staff regularly proposed to her family that Claudel be released, but her mother adamantly refused each time. On 1 June 1920, physician Dr. Brunet sent a letter advising her mother to try to reintegrate her daughter into the family environment. Nothing came of this.

[[CLAUDEL in the ASYLUM]]

Paul Claudel visited her every few years, though he referred to her in the past tense. In 1929 Jessie Lipscomb visited her and insisted "it was not true" that Claudel was insane. [16 years after Camille had been committed] Rodin's friend, Mathias Morhardt, insisted that Paul was a "simpleton" who had "shut away" his sister of genius.

Camille Claudel died on 19 October 1943, after having lived 30 years in the asylum at Montfavet … and without a visit from her mother or sister (her mother died 1929). Her body was interred in the cemetery of Monfavet. No one from the family attended the ceremony (only a few members from the hospital staff). Later her remains were buried in a communal grave (the body was never claimed by her family)” [wiki/Camille_Claudel]

Rodin died in 1917 just four years after her commitment, two decades after their breakup. He had helped cultivate Claudel’s talent, but didn’t prioritize supporting her in the manner to which she was accustomed. Before his death he wrote “to his friend Morhardt in 1914 when the (Rodin) museum project was taking shape : “The idea of including some sculptures by Mlle Say [a phonetic pseudonym for Camille Claudel, Mademoiselle C., based on the French pronunciation of “c”] would please me very much. This house is quite small and I don’t know how the rooms will be arranged. There could be a few buildings for her and for me.” (www.musee-rodin.fr) The Paris museum now exhibits the largest grouping of her sculptures with a mere 15 pieces.

When Camille’s father/benefactor died it left her to survive on her talent and the good graces of friends & family.

But no grace was given to this artist by her remaining family. They committed her a week after the death of her father, kept her in an institution for 30 years and didn’t even claim her body when she passed away. A monument to Claudel can be seen today in the cemetery at Montfavet placed by fans of her work in honor of the female sculptor years after her death. Her real legacy to women of today lies in her talent.

[[MONUMENT]]

There can be redemption through artwork and the legacy it leaves after the makers & muses have all gone from this life. So, we return to La Pausa in 1953, after the sculpture has been collected by Emery & Wendy Reves who have moved with their artwork into the house built for Chanel by her lover.

Finally, the three women come together at the bottom of the La Pausa’s stairs; all muses: model, artist & collector. Camille, Coco & Wendy: all necessary components to manifest this culmination.

iv.

[YOUNG WENDY & EMERY]

Wendy (1916 - 2007) was a former New York fashion model who graced the pages of Vogue & Harpers Bazaar. She was born in Texas and her 3rd marriage was to a politically minded literary agent with a love for impressionism. Her Hungarian husband Emery Reves had collected & brokered art before their marriage; but in their decades together as a couple, their art holdings continued to grow. The Reves hosted Sir Winston Churchill for months at the villa, where he painted watercolors of the gardens and worked on his formidable four volume "History of the English Speaking Peoples." Churchill’s publishing was brokered by Emery, who had written the book “Anatomy of Peace” himself. La Pausa was filled with Wendy’s Southern hospitality and decorated with an enviable collection of works by masters such as Van Gogh, Degas, Cassatt & that delightful Rodin.

[CHURCHILL at La Pausa]

"Emery Reves, a Hungarian-born British citizen who lived in France and Switzerland, a…man at home in nine languages and at ease in the corridors of power… Still, when he died … his name was probably familiar to no more than a few thousand people and his passing escaped the notice of most of the world's obituary pages.

Wendy Russell Reves says she went home from the hospital the night of his death on September 5, 1981, and offered a vow to her husband's departed spirit. “You never did get the acclaim that you should have … I can't give you that, but I can make you the greatest collector of this century.'" [Smithsonian Magazine]

[OLDER WENDY & EMERY]

Wendy’s lover/benefactor had died leaving her to survive on her talent & the good graces of friends & family. By 1985 the Reves Collection was in Texas, but it didn’t happen quickly since first came the planning and extensive negotiations.

In Wendy's obituary in the London Tribune it mentions her three marriages, career as a couture model, friendship with Churchill, and her impressive philanthropic vision. It mentions she had a child with her first husband and very abruptly does not mention his name. Turns out Wendy left her only offspring Arnold Leon Schroeder a mere half a million dollars in her will.

The rest of the assets in her husband's non-profit foundations were directed to the missions they had been established for during his lifetime, such as international studies and art. He had wanted the work to be seen with the backdrop of La Pausa & this was done in a conceptual way similar to the Lehman replica built in a wing of the Metropolitan Museum in 1978.

Wendy understood that art can be more valuable when it is kept together as a unique curation and not parceled off. In fact, the stipulations for the Dallas Museum of Art to take control of the art collection were formidable. No piece in the collection could be loaned out to other institutions (commonly practiced to foster good will), nor could work be exhibited separately from the others. A replica of Villa La Pausa had to be incorporated into the construction of a wing in the city's new art museum. The museum complied, Wendy's fundraising challenges & deadlines were met, contracts were signed, a $25M city bond election was passed to raise funds for the construction of the replica of the Chanel inspired home, customs documents were filed, the artwork was catalogued, delicately wrapped and crated to be sent from Paris to Dallas, Texas in 1983. [Hartman]

The French Government refused to allow "so many valuable works of art out of the country without extracting a price." At first France asked for three of the major paintings valued at $1.2M before they would approve the export. "The museum refused, countering with an offer of the proceeds from a Manet" which the government declined.

By 1984, "Mrs. Reves sent word to the president's palace that she would cause an international scene if her collection was not released. Irvin Levy remembers her threatening to burn everything in it rather than let the French have it." [Hartman 196] Wendy and her lawyers were adamant that her philanthropic donation be respected. An emotional “outburst” of this sort would have been frowned upon if this had happened one hundred years prior.

In the end, the tribute to the French government necessary to get the Reves Collection exported from Paris to Dallas that was finally agreed upon required Mrs. Reves to give France $750,000 toward the purchase of a Bonnard painting they wanted and additionally pay them $250,000 in taxes. The City of Dallas had spent nearly $6 million by the time the Reves Collection wing opened in November 1985 at the Dallas Museum of Art. [Hartman]

Wendy's gift to the public of the collection was not impulsive but well thought out over a long period of time. Her gift didn't make her husband the greatest collector of the 20th century as forecasted, but it is terribly romantic that she tried. Her significant donation of the fabulous collection was valued "equaled (to) that of everything the Dallas museum had bought or been given in its first 75 years." [Hartman 190] Instead of choosing to gift the Metropolitan Museum in New York (where a $30 million collection is less spectacular), Mrs. Reves chose to make a deeper impact in an urban area closer to her childhood home in Texas

Again, a woman's nostalgia for her youth creates an artistic legacy.

v.

The estranged son of Mrs. Reves filed a federal lawsuit this month attempting to dismantle the art collection and steal it from public view. As stated by the museum that houses the Reves Collection, “On behalf of the citizens of Dallas as well as the public at large, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of donations from the Emery Reves trusts, the Dallas Museum of Art not only has a legal responsibility to stand up to these unfounded claims, but a moral one, as well…

Mr. Schroeder… is hoping that French “forced heirship” laws will be applied to Wendy Reves’s estate, thus entitling him to one-half of her assets, rather than the $500,000 left to him in her will. This lawsuit further contends that Wendy Reves’s estate should include not only the personal assets inherited from her husband but also the Reves Collection and other assets of her husband’s charitable trusts - assets and artwork that were acquired by Emery Reves mostly before he and Wendy married and that were placed into charitable trusts by him. The suit argues that these gifts should be taken back in order that Mr. Schroeder can lay claim to them for his personal benefit.

Following the death of Emery Reves, Mrs. Reves (Wendy) acted as president of the charitable trusts and foundations established by him, which included overseeing the Reves Collection. She was therefore responsible for the donations of money and art made by his trusts, but she (Wendy) did not own their assets. These trusts and foundations were never part of Mrs. Reves’s estate, and the current lawsuit seeking to claim their assets is clearly without merit. Mrs. Reves entrusted the Reves Collection to the Dallas Museum of Art nearly 30 years ago, and the courts should ensure that Mrs. Reves’s generous wishes of public benefit, rather than Mr. Schroeder’s desires for private gain, are respected.” [Simek]

In the suit from last month, her son alleges that no taxes were paid to France (although a specific dollar amount was named in 1985 in Texas Monthly article). He names a handful of defendants from the art museum and UT-Southwestern (known for world class medical research). It also says the works were sent in plain unmarked boxes, which also counters what was reported twenty years ago in that story’s extensive description of the documenting placement from the villa, careful packing, & detailed labeling process that was overseen by Wendy & the museum’s staff (McCue) If her son was so terribly concerned with the alleged exploitation of his mother, he should have developed a relationship with her in the last twenty years of her life following the donation of the collection to the museum or earlier. It seems distasteful that it is easier for him to take up the matter with the courts, rather than confront his own mother while she was alive.

The collection was reportedly valued at $30M in 1985. In today’s market, it is estimated to be worth $400M (especially since the collection has received so much academic attention since put into public view twenty five years ago).

Wendy had her son at age 18 after marrying a year before. When he was 5, she began her career in New York as a fashion model. A year later she married her band leader second husband there. By 1948 she became romantically involved with Emery Reves, but they didn’t marry till 1964 in Switzerland when her son was thirty years old. (wiki Wendy Reves) "She had had enough of the institution and finally accepted one of Emery's frequent proposals only after their lawyers informed her that when he died she might lose control of the art."

Emery Reves described his wife as "a woman with a brilliant mind and imagination, tempered by much common sense. She is a woman who never bored me". [museumstuff.com]

Children are not entitled to a financial inheritance, only a genetic legacy. This is true for descendants of patrons, be they Medici or Reves. The value of intangible gifts like beauty, knowledge, creativity & common sense is not something that can be priced.

The descendents of Andrew Carnegie didn’t come to suggest the philanthropist was exploited by librarians. To misunderstand patronage as senility would have prevented much creativity & innovation in centuries past. Da Vinci was patronized by the pope, Botticelli by Medici, and Stravinsky by Chanel. More recently, photographer Banier was financed by Liliane Bettencourt of the Loreal fortune. [Vanity Fair] This did not please her natural children and with their greed’s litigation they unknowingly inherited tax scandals galore that had been previously tucked away.

Patronage of the Russian painter, Leo Michelson by Wendy Reves is not mentioned in her son’s recent lawsuit, only her charitable donations to major institutions such as municipal art museums and medical research facilities. Poor Camille Claudel lost the support of her family and their patronage of her art career and she ended up in an unmarked grave. Claudel’s tragic ending happened long ago and perhaps something can be learned from it.

[Wendy Reves painted by Graham Sutherland in 1978]

Modern women are allowed to vote, wear pants, own property and choose our own paths. It is unbelievably short-sighted of Arnold Schroeder to undermine his mother’s choice to permanently share the art in the Reves collection with the public in the manner of her choosing.

Women should not be asked to justify our passions, nor should any other muse. Passion is how legacy is established.

===

BIBLIOGRAPHY

(A)Print sources -followed by- (B) sources only available via internet –ending with gratitude to all the contributors to the links below, the Dallas Museum of Art and my three historical sirens.

A.

Bond Rafferty, Jean. “Chanel N˚31” in France Today magazine October 2, 2009

http://www.francetoday.com/articles/2009/10/02/chanel-n-31.html

Colacello, Bob. “The Bettencourt Affair, pt 1 Dangerous Liasions” in Vanity Fair magazine November 2010 http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2010/11/bettencourt-part-2-201011?currentPage=1

Dudar, Helen. “ An art-filled villa finds a special setting in Texas -Wendy and Emery Reves, Villa La Pausa.” Smithsonian (January 01, 1987) http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-5452037_ITM

Hartman, Thomas. "Have I got a collection for you." Texas Monthly magazine (November 1985) p. 188-196

Normand-Romain, Antoinette. The Bronzes of Rodin: Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin Volume II , Ashgate publishers (2007), p. 655.

Simek, Peter. "Reves Heir Alleges Dallas Museum of Art Conspired To Acquire Art Collection (Updated)" in D Magazine. Posted online March 15, 2011

http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2011/03/reves-heir-alleges-dallas-museum-of-art-conspired-to-acquire-massive-art-collection/

Sancton, Tom. “The Bettencourt Affair, pt 2 The Gilded Friendship” in Vanity Fair magazine November 2010 http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2010/11/bettencourt-201011?currentPage=1

Mazzeo, Tilar J. The Secret of Chanel No. 5. HarperCollins (2010). p. 95.

McCue, Dan. “Heir Claims Dallas Art Museum & Trustees Carried Off Mom's $400 Million Collection” Courthouse News. Posted online March 15, 2011

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/03/15/34941.htm

Picardie, Justine. Coco Chanel: The Legend and the Life. Harper Collins (2010)

Vincent, Clare. "Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) | Thematic Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art" found at: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rodn/hd_rodn.htm

Wilonsky, Robert. "Wendy Reves's sole heir files Federal Suit to Retrieve Mother's Art Collection (left to DMA) & Money (given to UT Southwestern)..." in Dallas Observer posted online March 14, 2011.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2011/03/wendy_revess_sole_heir_wants_m.php

B.

Dallas Museum of Art - Wendy & Emery Reves Collection (2 links - first about Reves, 2nd about the sculpture of Claudel. )

http://www.dallasmuseumofart.org/PressRoom/dma_339879

http://dallasmuseumofart.org:8080/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/3370/121/title-asc;jsessionid=FE10FBB63C24BAE929038822C0F5EC24?t:state:flow=7c481880-c00b-4d60-9c76-413d1727d55d

Reves Center for International Studies at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA. http://www.wm.edu/offices/revescenter/?svr=web

http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=5258535

http://la-pausa.tumblr.com/about

http://mistressesoftheuniverse.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/claud-e.htm

http://www.museumstuff.com/learn/topics/Wendy_Russell_Reves::sub::Emery_Reves

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1545653/Wendy-Reves.html

http://www.winstonchurchill.org/support/the-churchill-centre/publications/chartwell-bulletin/2010/30-dec-2010/1031-churchill-and-reves-a-breach-in-friendship

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gates_of_Hell

wiki coco chanel

wiki camille claudel

wiki wendy reves

wiki auguste rodin

wiki igor stravinsky

wiki emery reves

there is a movie about camille & a zillion or so about coco (but you really ought to read more)

[Immense gratitude from this writer to Martha MacLeod, curatorial administrative assistant with the European & American Art Department at the Dallas Museum of Art for exchanging emails with me about the provenance of this sculpture based on information in their archival holdings from “The Wendy & Emery Reves Papers.” Please note this blog was written without the consent or review of the DMA]

equinox at the spiro mounds

~ INDEX~ Intro / Equinox Site / Modern Site History / Prehistoric Tribal Culture & Ritual / Directions to Park / Bibliography / Links / Epilogue

[sunset in spiro]

My daughter & I went to Oklahoma on Fall Equinox this year. We took the day off & drove 4 1/2 hours to Spiro from Dallas. Luckily we caught the sunset lecture by an archaeologist who told the story of a civilization that once lived in the place where we were standing. They were mound building Native Americans whose earthenwork structures were strategically placed to fall in line with the astronomical movements of the seasons. This equinox site is a day use park only, but is worth a visit to peek at the past. Especially spectacular are visits on certain equinoxes & solstices when the modern mortal can still witness the sun and moon's alignment to a row of mounds. For a short moment, we can stand in line with structures built by our primitive brothers & sisters a thousand years ago which still align today with clockwork precision to the very same sun.

The following blog discusses: prehistoric Native American seasonal rituals and cultural artifacts, and the history of the land in the years since then including the highly dramatic trouble created by treasure hunters at the site. Complete gallery of the pictures I took on the trip can be found by >clicking this link<

[human effigy]

Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park is located on 140 acres in Spiro Oklahoma near its eastern border with Arkansas. The 12 mound park offers a one-half mile interpretive nature trail year round and a small museum with a gift shop. The park's director is archaeologist Dennis Peterson who leads special tours of the mounds by appointment on Solstices, and during its most impressive astronomical alignment on Fall Equinox. Some of the information in this blog comes from the links & books referenced at the bottom of this entry. Many of the details below come from Peterson's lecture on site at sunset, September 23, 2010 and from my emailed questions that followed. His book recommendations are *starred* in my bibliography below. He did not review this blog pre-posting, so hopefully I haven't screwed up too much of the story in this retelling :)

[Spiro’s resident archaeologist, Dennis Peterson]

Spiro is at a bend of the Arkansas River & was the site of a central western political outpost & ritual center for a coalition of around 60 pre-historic Native American tribes. They were known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC) and they dominated the region before colonization. The Spiro site was actively used from 850 - 1450 AD and connected the region with elaborate rituals, an iconographic (picture) writing system, and maintained a huge trade route across the Southern United States stretching from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic coast of Virginia & up to the Great Lakes. Spiro isn't the name of the tribe though. The mound site is named for the nearby city.


[trade network]

During its heyday, leaders of Spiro orchestrated its people to build over twelve mounds including nine platform mounds and a single burial mound over a period of 400 years. These earthenworks structures were positioned to align with the rising & setting of the sun on certain seasonally significant days acting like a calendar that tracks the seasons.


[mound alignment]

The Temple Mound is the tallest earthenwork structure still intact on the site & is known as the Brown Mound. It steeply slopes on three sides and it is thought that the fourth side had a walkway up to the flat top of this platform mound where a structure was built. Today the top of the mound looks rounded in by erosion like the indent of a cup.

When the moon rose over the mound on Fall Equinox, it sat perfectly embraced by the divot in the top of temple mound. This was beautiful to see when a person stands on the path between the temple & house mounds, astronomical precision at sunset watching the sun align with the house mound & slip down below the peak on the horizon.

[moonrise over temple mound]

The archaeologist said that Fall Equinox for the tribe was an observance of a harvest ritual. The temple maintained a sacred fire in the ceremonial center. Before the fast, home fires were put out and hearths were cleaned. Women & children were not allowed in the main ceremonial area under penalty of death. Roughly 20,000 men from the region would come together and fast as a community, waiting for the priest to report what the "sundagger" or beams of light had shown them inside the temple mound when the sun shined through slits in the wall. The temple structure had images marked on the walls of its inner chamber that would be illuminated on seasonal holidays. Petroglyph cave paintings with similar iconography to that used in Spiro can be found in Dunbar Cave in Tennessee.

So this passing beam of light was in the right position on certain days to indicate key signs that the priest interpreted and shared related to the community's planting, harvesting, and other planning. Part of the ritual was that the leading gran soleil goes into seclusion for 3 days without food or water and has a vision. During this period the community allows for criminal appeals & judgments to be overturned. This is a time of forgiveness and renewal for the tribe.


[tattooed Spiro resident with stretched ears]

On the third day the sacred old women are allowed to bring trays of food to the edge of the ceremonial area where the men have secluded themselves under the brush arbors. The priest brings a bowl of sacred fire to house mound #2 and the leader emerges to return with them to the temple mound. The Gran Soleil gathered with other leaders around the sacred fire, which they fed and talked to. Women in the community bring their best pottery to the temple and are given sacred fire to return home with so they may restart the home fires. The whole community then goes to the river to be cleansed and forgiven. After the purification, everyone returns for a potluck dinner to celebrate the fresh start of a new season.

[dancers]

But that was 500 years or more before everything changed in 1933. It was the thick of the Great Depression and the property was owned by Mr. & Mrs. James Craig who had two young children. Several groups asked for permission to look for treasures in the mounds and were turned away. James Craig died "in the shadow of the mound" with Tuberculosis not long after meeting those who would become known as the "Pocola Mining Co"

So the parents of these children die under mysterious circumstances and the property is inherited by the kid's grandfather George Evans, who becomes their guardian. The old grandfather agreed to give the group a two year mining lease for $50 which led to one of the greatest archeological disasters in North America.

[path to Spiro Interpretive Trail]

The group spent the season harvesting the burial mound haphazardly, searching for gold & jewels that did not exist. It was readily apparent that the site contained ancient artifacts that were meant for museums. So the group immediately began peddling artifacts on the open market, labeled "From the Temple Mound in the Fort Coffee Bottoms near Spiro, Oklahoma, USA."

Artifacts from Spiro can currently be found in the collections of the Louvre, British Museum, Smithsonian, Victoria & Albert Museum, Heritage, Houston Museum of Fine Art, Ohio State Museum, Oklahoma History Society and the interesting sounding Wool-a-roc Museum & Nature Preserve in Bartlesville, OK. A large collection belongs to Oklahoma University, but there are many more universities with Spiro artifacts in their collections such as University of Arkansas and Gilcrease in Tulsa. In 1935 the Kansas City Star referred to the site as the "King Tut of the Arkansas Valley" based on the artifacts being sold by the Pocola Mining Company.



Soon, the treasure hunters got impatient enough to hire coal miners to "excavate". It was also reported by the Kansas City Star that a 14' tunnel had been built straight through the mound, large enough for a man to walk through with a wheel barrow. At the end of the lease, the once 33' tall burial mound was honeycombed with smaller tunnels. Interestingly there were no cave ins, although no shoring or timber was replaced by the miners. Around the same time suspiciously found drown in a shallow stream was the company's local contact R.W. Wall who also worked for the land owner’s as the project secretary.

Forrest E. Clements in the Anthropology Dept. of the University of Oklahoma started hearing about a deluge of undocumented artifacts originating from the area and it was the first the scientific community had heard of the looting going on in Spiro. In the beginning, they thought the artifacts were forgeries since the like had never been seen or unearthed. When the reality of the situation set in, Clements unsuccessfully tried to buy out the Pocola Mining Co. Finally, state legislature passed licensing requirements to protect the site. A lawyer who opposed the antiquities bill died unexpectedly just before the vote and local rumor attributed the death to a curse on those who had anything to do with the defiling of the tribe's Burial Mound.


[1936 image of destroyed mound from UT Austin link below]

"The diggers paid no attention to the new law until the deputy sheriff paid them a visit one day in the summer of 1935. After they were informed of their illegal act of digging and after "several threats of mayhem" they gathered up their tools and left....At this point the main cone on Craig Mound was pretty well intact and Clements believed the battle was won. So, not worrying about the site's destruction anymore, he took a summer teaching appointment in California and left. Most of the people who lived in the area were living within a rural community ...and archaeology was not an important issue. No one really cared to enforce the law so when ...Clements wasn't around to check up on things, the diggers moved back in and finished out their lease which ran until the end of summer. " (from Bostrom's blog)

At the end of 1935, the burial mound known as Craig Mound was blown up with a charge of black powder allegedly by the Pocola "Mining" Co. When the teacher Clements returned from his semester out of state, he found the remains of the mound littered with broken shell, pottery and bones. Feather robes were trampled by the plunder and destroyed cloth and baskets lay in bits. It was too late; the explosion had defiled what was left of the burial mound which had been so carefully created by this stone age civilization

[Engraved Shell Gorget ]

Clements wrote "the great mound had been tunneled through and through, gutted in a frenzy of haste. Sections of cedar poles lay scattered on the ground, fragments of feather and fur textiles littered the whole area. It was impossible to take a single step in hundreds of square yards around the ruined structure without scuffing up broken pieces of pottery, sections of engraved shell, and beads of shell, stone and bone."



In 1936, the University of Oklahoma archaeologists & a team of WPA workers excavated the rest of the Craig Burial Mound completely and salvaged many unearthered remains at the site. The war ended the project in 1941 but the mounds were eventually reconstructed in the 1970's. The reconstruction intended that the mounds would look as they did in photographs taken by local historic society member Joseph Thoburn before 1914 when the mounds appeared to still be undisturbed and intact. The "great mortuary" or Craig burial Mound was estimated to be 33' above ground level and 115' in diameter. The smaller other mounds average 20' high x 80' wide and many are believed to have remained undisturbed and have not ever been excavated. Most of the mounds were "for buildings to be placed upon or to cover old houses."

[underlying structure of house mound]

Much of OU's artifacts from the excavation in the 1930's are today overseen by Sam Noble at the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The school found more than 600 burials and over a thousand artifacts. From the 60's-80's, more excavation was done by the Oklahoma Archaeological Survey that also was of academic quality.

[unearthed representation of mound site in copper]

Unfortunately, the earlier artifacts were taken from the burial mound by Pocola Mining Co. before the university came to insure proper excavation. Thousands of objects were not properly cataloged and were removed without regard to their placement. As Peterson said, the artifacts are now permanently out of context "like pages ripped from a book." A good example is the carved ax heads found placed in a circle on staged skeletal remains. Many copper axes found in Spiro had handles made of persimmon wood carved into the shape of bird heads with eyes inlaid with shell.


[burial placement in circle of ax handles with beheadings]

Spiro was known for exotic burial ceremonies for elite members of its society. Planting & Harvests were celebrated. It was also the location of Seasonal Ceremonies including the Black Drink Ritual or other purging acts including smoking rituals involving smudging and the swallowing of pipe smoke in large gulps to invoke vomiting to expel or detox before a fast.
The leader, the Gran Soleil, smokes in the temple to purge before the ­3 day fast then goes into seclusion in the house mound #2 in order to have his vision for the next season's planning to lead his people. This leader is thought to be an intermediary between the lower & upper worlds, the earth and the sun. He is thought to communicate with the sun and returns to advise the people.


There are consequently many large effigy pipes for smoking that were unearthed from Spiro. The 'Smoker' is in OU's collection and measures over a foot in length and was made in Illinois and brought to Spiro as part of an exchange between chiefdoms. This artifact is thought to have been originally created at Cahokia near St. Louis and was exported down river to Oklahoma. The ancient civilization in Spiro smoked a weaker everyday tobacco flavored with fruit or mint. Ritual smoking was used as a purge with intensely stronger tobacco that was considered sacred.

[The Smoker Effigy Pipe at OU]

[Big Boy Effigy Pipe representing mythic hero Red Horn]

The far area near the burial mound was once a habitation area in the early days that the site was used. On an elevated area to the west of the burial mound is a ceremonial complex of 8 mounds surrounding a plaza. The people of Spiro engraved copper; made beads from stones, shells & seed pearls; farmed the land, hunted for food, decorated their bodies with tattoos, had stretched ears & wore spacers made of copper or stone (some of these ear spools measured 3” in diameter). The bows made in Spiro from Bois d'Arc wood were highly prized trade items across the region. Also popular for export were the lightweight gardening tools made from bison scapula favored by women & children who sowed the fields. Other crafted artifacts have been found such as the pipes and human effigies made of cedar or stone. Tools have been unearthed like stone maces and carefully created ax handles.
[EAR SPOOLS Comparison from UT Austin site]

[SPACERS aka EAR SPOOLS]

The big shot leader was known as "Gran Soleil" and when they died their prized possessions were buried with them in the mound. Their servants & wives considered it an honor to be ritually beheaded & buried with the leader when it was his time to go. As many as 20,000 people from far outposts of the tribe came to Spiro with baskets of dirt to contribute to the mound burial ceremony. When the bodies were prepared and placed on top of the burial mound, a teepee like structure was made over the offerings with upright cedar poles leaning inward placed in an "irregular circular pattern. The sides of this structure were then packed with dirt...and rapidly covered. As a result...a hollow chamber was left behind, roughly 15-20' in diameter and 8-10' high" Excavation found lime coating the inside of the structure had built up over time which sealed and helped preserve many of objects that now act as a record of this lost culture. Upper layers of the mound contain lesser ranking burials and later deposits offered "a total lack of grave goods" in the later period (from spiromounds.com)

[ritual beheading of servants who have the 'privilege' to be buried with their leader in the mound]

It is thought that the Spiro people were ancestors of the Caddo, Wichita & Kichai tribes. The burial rites of Spiro were continued by the Natchez & Choctaw tribes. Spiro cosmology was kept by many including the Cherokee & Muscogee tribes. Spiro descendants could possibly be the Tula tribe found by DeSoto upstream on the Arkansas River in 1542. By the late 1800’s when the original owner of the land named Rachel Brown claimed to have seen "ghosts & blue flames" around the Indian mounds the tribe who created them was a mystery.

We don't have a name for the Mississippian period tribe at Spiro although they are considered to be part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, sometimes referred to as the Southern or Buzzard Cult. Birds are a recurring image and theme with the tribe and many of its rituals.

[birdman]

Hawk Dance or Eagle Dance is common to many regional tribes especially in the Mississippi area. "Raptors were considered messengers between this world & the upper world" said Peterson. One of the artifacts in the Spiro Museum is a conch shell imported from South Florida, brought to Spiro to be engraved with an iconic image of a Raptor. Many of these engraved shells were sent with couriers who were asked to memorize stories correlating with the images. The stories were retold to priests and leaders in far away cities by the Spiro messenger helping to unite the network of tribes with similar archetypes and ideas about cosmology and stories of how they believed the world worked. The images were recreated on pottery made in the outposts that received the engraved message from Spiro, helping perpetuate the unified stories spread to the common people sent everywhere they traveled & lived.

[RAPTOR engraving done in Spiro on conch shell imported from Florida]

Dennis Peterson's lecture talked about the migration of people to this continent, about burial rites of the tribe and how leaders were chosen. I especially found Peterson's ideas about the end of the culture fascinating.

Theories suggest that global climate changes in the 1300's contributed to the demise of the culture. Europe experienced a little Ice Age and the North American South had 100 years of drought. Weather changes increased bug populations and threw off predator/prey ratios. A darker mood developed when new creatures moved into the area like the predatorial jaguar with its unnerving scream like a woman in pain. Overpopulations by in the the screeching pileated woodpeckers didn't add pleasant sounds to the forest either.

The drought also encouraged the immigration of the unusual looking armadillo into the area, but the prehistoric people thought the armadillo brought the drought instead of the other way around. The elaborate rituals thought to improve their chances did nothing to feed the poor who began to rebel against the obligations given to them by their wealthy leaders.

[ceremonial cup used in black drink ritual, made of shell engraved with armadillo images]

The Lecture speculated that much like today, 700 years ago leaders tried to (1) deny the problem existed for at least one generation which worked for less than 20 years, then tried (2) blaming others [like suggesting new animals species were causing starvation], next leaders defensively supported a (3) shift from regional sharing of power to an attempt at centralized power, finally causing (4) adaptation or overthrow of the political system in power.

In response to their disillusionment with politicians and priests that could not control global climate change, the people eventually quit paying taxes or participating in ceremonies. Respect for authority was gone and mound building ends. Shift of power is taken from leaders, and trappings of power are given up. Regional trade shrivels and only insular local trades continue. With the lack of respect for leaders or their ambassadors and no trade diplomacy, violence between the tribes escalates and the civilization at Spiro fractures, factions and ends.

~ DIRECTIONS to Spiro Mounds Archaeological Park:
Spiro Mounds Park is 3 miles east of Spiro off Hwy 271, then 4 miles north on Spiro Mounds Rd. The city of Spiro is just a few miles away from a Dam on the Arkansas River (near Lake Wister State Park). Park is open May through October. Reservations for tours is recommended by calling Dennis Peterson at 918-962-2062 or emailing spiromds@ipa.net or contact@spiromound.com - 18154 First Street, Spiro 74959

[engraving with axis mundi staff]

~ BIBLIOGRAPHY:
-- more info on seasonal rituals of the Spiro tribe read:
*(-) the very readable 573 pages "The Southeastern Indians" by Charles Hudson published by University of Tennessee Press, TN (1976).

(-) "Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms: Interpretations of Mississippian Iconography (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies) [Paperback]" edited by F. Kent III and James F. Garber. published by University of Texas Press, Austin, TX (2009).

* (-) "Black Drink." by Hudson, Charles M. (1979). University of Georgia Press. pp. 83–112.

-- more on tribal cosmology & their origin stories for fire or creation read either:
*(-) "Native American Legends: Southeastern Legends Tales from the Natchez...and other Nations (American Folklore Series) by George E. Lankford published in hardcover by August House Press (1987).

or the author's new book to be released in January 2011:
(-) "Visualizing the Sacred: Cosmic Visions, Regionalism, and the Art of the Mississippian World (Linda Schele Series in Maya and Pre-Columbian Studies)" Edited by George E. Lankford published again by August House Press (2011).

-- other Spiro related information found in:
(-) The Spiro Ceremonial Center: the Archaeology of Arkansas Valley Caddoan culture in Eastern Oklahoma by James A. Brown (University of Michigan, Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, Number 29, 1996).

(-) "The Spiro Mound." by Henry W. Hamilton The Missouri Archaeologist, Vol. 14 October.

(-) "The Oxford Companion to Archaeology" by Brian M. Fagan, pg. 686

~ tribal design images taken from following limited pressing six volume large formant museum book which catalogs over 1,400 designs:
"Pre Columbian Shell Engravings: from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma" in six volumes by Philip Phillips and James A. Brown with collaborators. Published in Large Format as a Limited Edition set by Peabody Museum Press. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts. (1975-1983)

from aLibris.com: "Unequaled in North America as a single source of prehistoric figurative and decorative art, the Craig burial mound was plundered by commercial diggers in 1933. Hundreds of fragile shell artifacts covered with engraved designs were quickly sold and, whole or fragmented, were scattered in public and private collections across the country. For the past ten years, Dr. Philip Phillips, Honorary Curator of Southeastern Archaeology at Harvard, has supervised a massive project that has involved making rubbings and line drawings of this whole corpus of Southeastern Indian art, matching hundreds of fragments, and classifying the engraved designs by schools. Volume VI, the last volume of the set, deals with the final phase of the Craig style, then concludes with a summary of the study, a bibliography, and an extensive index."

[engraving of Janus headed rattlesnake crowned with Antlers]


~ LINKS for the BLOG:
www.spiromound.com/pages/history.htm (park site)

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/s/sp012.html (by Dennis Peterson for Oklahoma Historical Society)

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/spiro.html (excellent UT Austin site)

www.ou.edu/cas/archsur/counties/leflore.htm (OU site)

www.exploresouthernhistory.com/SpiroMounds1.html

www.okhistory.org/outreach/museums/spiromounds.html (Oklahoma Historical Society Site)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Ceremonial_Complex (includes Red Horn hero myth)

http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/spirocraigmoundpage1.htm (excellent blog called "History of the Destruction of Craig Mound" by Pete Bostrom)

~ epilogue
- There are four remaining places to see evidence of settlements from this tribal network called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, one of which is Spiro. Further exploration can be found at Moundsville Park & Museum in Alabama (moundville.ua.edu), in Georgia at Etowah Mounds Day-use State Park (www.gastateparks.org/EtowahMounds) and the fourth site was considered to have been the main capital of the prehistoric SECC tribes & can be explored in Illinois at Cahokia Mounds State Park & Museum(cahokiamounds.org). Cahokia was thought to have a population at its peak of 50,000, when Spiro had around 10,000 back then.

- No connection has been established between the mound building tribes of SECC and those built by the Mesoamerican Toltecs and Aztecs in Mexico. Maps that mention Toltec modular distances between mounds refers to standards established in Scott, Arkansas at the Toltec Mounds site, misnamed long before researchers had decided there wasn't enough evidence to tie together the mound builders of both areas.

- Equinox (n.) "the time when the Sun reaches the point along the elliptic where it crosses into the southern celestial hemisphere marking the start of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere" from the astronomical site http://skymaps.com which offers free monthly star charts for stargazers to print & use to identify constellations and other sights if you have access to a sky full of stars or a telescope.