Transcription by Kim Black for NIHS
Diary of William Jurian Kaula – April 1897
William Jurian Kaula and Lee Lufkin Kaula, for many years, were summer residents of Bank Village in New Ipswich. Both became accomplished New England artists; William focused on landscape painting and Lee explored a variety of genres but her portraits of women and children were the standouts.
William, born in 1871, met Lee while studying art in France. They married in 1902. After a successful career, William died in 1953 and is buried in our New Ipswich Central Cemetery. Lee, born 1865, passed away four years after William in 1957 and is buried with her husband.
In addition to the many images of their paintings available to enjoy on the internet, William was also a prolific diarist. While studying art in France he captured the unique experience of living in a foreign country and continued writing even after his marriage to Lee.
The New Ipswich Historical Society is fortunate to have a copy of William’s diary and Kim Black has transcribed his his writings, beginning in April 1896. William surely painted as well with words as he did with watercolors.
April 1897
11 April 1897 – Steamship Voyage
I saw Hazard and he has really enjoyed being out of the Latin Quarter and found his “pension” a most enjoyable place among the old maids and their gossip.
I took my first voyage on a steamboat on the Seine. There were races at the courses at the Bois de Boulogne and the boat was crowded. The sun shone brightly and I had an excellent opportunity to see much of the city going down the river. There is very much about the Seine that I have not yet mentioned and is worthy of description. We embarked at the Louvre near the Pont du Carousel which is my favorite bridge and the one that I generally cross on my journeys across the river. One must pass or linger on the Quai Voltaire where the walls are loaded with cases and boxes of second-hand books, prints, pamphlets, posters, and postage stamps.
I am nearly always tempted to stop and examine this apparent collection of rubbish and it is perfectly amazing to note the great variety in stock by the vendors.
Starting from the heart of the city with the Louvre on one side and the Palais de l’Institut on the other there is a charming view looking backward toward the Ile de la Cité which I will have to leave until I make a voyage in that direction. The first object of historical interest is the ruins of the Palais du Quai d’Orsay, a huge building that was burned by the Communards in 1871. The trees are now in full verdure inside of the black grimed walls. Now comes the Place de la Concorde but it is much concealed by the high river walls, there is but a glimpse of the shaft of the obelisk, the Madelaine, and the heights of Montmartre behind. On the other side of the river rises the dome of the Chambré des Députés. Now we are near the Palais de l’Industry with its great glass roofs now sheltering the coming exhibition of the Salon de Champs Elyseés. Preparations are now in progress for the construction of a new bridge across the river to be used at the next world’s fair. Owing the recent display of affection between France and Russia this bridge will be named Alexander. The same individual laid the corner-stone during his recent visit to Paris. The open space of the Esplanade de Invalides which is visible at this point affords a view of the gilded dome of the Hôtel des Invalides which covers the tomb of Napoleon I like a huge Prussian helmet with its glittering spike that sparkles in the sun. After passing under many bridges we approach the exposition grounds with its great buildings and domes of the fair held in 1889. Right in the midst of these grounds and buildings rises the stupendous Eiffel Tower – naturally (says the guide book) the most conspicuous object in view. We look upon this colossal iron framework with awe which has appealed to us by being the most familiar object that attracts the eye in Paris. The tower rises from the ground and arches up to the first platform which is 190 feet above the ground. The various platforms contain restaurants, cafes, buffets, and a theatre. It is open to the public and I shall ascend to the top some day and be able to tell more about it. On the other bank of the river directly opposite on the hillside is the Trocadero. It is a very imposing building in the Oriental style and is named after one of the forts of Cadiz. It contains a Museé de Sculpture Comparie or des Moulages, and an Ethnographical** Museum. The views from the balconies extends for miles up and down the Seine and overlooks the Exposition grounds of 1889. It is built in the form of a crescent with two tall square towers at the main portion of the building in the centre. The two wings are curved and are very long, some 220 yards in length. The front of the central portion is very elaborate and from which descends a great cascade into a large basin. Zola’s descriptions of sunsets as seen from the balconies here are very vivid with all the details of the effect as if seen by the eye of the painter. The city of Paris beyond this point in the river is much less interesting. There is the Statue of Liberty on an island in the middle of the river. It is a small reproduction of the one in New York harbor by Bartholdi. As a work of art it is a sad failure and resembles a woman on the point of retiring holding aloft a candle. I was told that this was presented to France by the French citizens of New York. The Pont du Jour is the last and if not the most imposing of the bridges across the Seine. Over the bridge on higher arches runs the viaduct of the circular railway that makes a belt around the city inside of the walls. The banks here are lined with cheap restaurants, cafes, concerts, and bicycle resorts. Beyond is open country with the background of the hills of Mendon and St. Cloud. The boat stops at many piers where there are pleasant little villas. The most important stop is that of Sevres which is celebrated by the government since the last century (1756). Mendon, Serves, and St. Cloud are very interesting places and must be left for other excursions. We are now at the terminus of the steamboat at Suresnes. Opposite lies the Bris du Boulonge with the courses of Longchamp and the races in progress. There are hundreds of cabs and thousands of bicycles. Suresnes is a small town and the few cafes are resorts of the multitude of bicyclists who stop for refreshments. The trip on the steamer from Paris takes about an hour.
* Arthur M. Hazard – b. 1872, d. 1930, a close friend, fellow artist and travel companion of William Kaula.
** I am greatly indebted to “Dicky” Wyeth for this elegant name. (unknown if related to the subsequent Wyeth painters).
[Transcription by Kim Black]
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12 April 1897 – Return to Moret
The party on this occasion consisted of eleven persons – namely Mr. and Mrs. Wyeth, Mrs. Wyeth’s mother and brother (Gilman), Misses Olcott and Baumann*, Glover, Logan, Cartwright, Hazard, and I. We have planned to stay the rest of the week and with every prospect of a glorious time.
*Miss B. is a blonde but too heavy to be an angel.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
13 April 1897 – Painting with Arthur Merton Hazard
The season has advanced considerable since our last visit here and there is much more verdure. We have been busy make small sketches and Hazard and I are planning to paint a few canvases.
14 April 1897 – Glover and Logan
Glover and Logan are not doing any work and are devoting their time and attention to another matter – the young ladies. It would be impossible for me to calculate how many miles these couples have walked since their arrival in Moret. Both cases look very serious and are very interesting to watch. Mr. Wyeth has been doing some deadly work with his new outfit of water-colors.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
15 April 1897 – Lovestruck Glover and Logan
Poor Glover and Logan are not themselves and wander around in aimless fashion. I would like to describe the whole affair but I need not dwell upon the affairs of others especially about things that I do not understand and where there is a danger that I might misrepresent facts.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
16 April 1897 – The Opera
We held an “Opera” in the evening in the dining room – Hazard played the piano and Logan experimented with a violin. After singing a number of popular songs we became enthusiastic over the selections from the grand operas. After a while they ceased to resemble any particular tune and each one tried his best to make as much discordant sound as possible. The din increased until it was something terrific. Anxious faces of the townspeople peeped in the windows and someone reported that the noise could be heard all over the town. I made my debut as an opera star and sang various unknown selections. Hazard and Logan were each on their own book and entirely independent as was also our “chorus.” When the complaints began to arrive we ceased and spent another hour in laughter over the ridiculous performance. It is astonishing that we could have made so much noise without the use of liquors. No one had even a single drop of wine and yet we made noise enough for a drunken carousal.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
17 April 1897 – Moret Photo (no diary entry)
18 April 1897 – Easter Sunday
I am not so pleased with the country outside of Moret. Most all of the picturesque spots seem to be in the immediate vicinity. A long walk up the canal did not reveal any new desirable material. I have enough work in progress to keep me busy all the day for over a week to come and will remain with Hazard. The rest of the party left for Paris this afternoon. This is Easter Sunday and a most beautiful day. The little town presents a more enlivened appearance since the arrival of numbers of visitors who are here to spend the day. There was a good prospect of a good late-afternoon effect of sunlight and as I walked in the direction of the forest of Fontainbleu. I walked some few miles and on the road into the forest, overtook two droves of sheep that had passed through Moret during the afternoon, and then retraced my footsteps to see the last rays of the sun bathe the house tops and towers of the town. The cathedral was a glory and shone with a resplendent yellow light, the little stone houses were now golden palaces, even the stone viaduct that spanned the valley that always looked so cold and bleak with its multitude of arches now suddenly transformed in a dazzling spectacle. The sun is now so low that its rays pass under the arches and stretches in long bands of golden light that radiate like the spokes of a wheel over the meadows. There is a glitter like the mellow foliage of autumn over the treetops and long shadows run up the hillsides and are lost in a vague confusion of the chalk cliffs. There was no cloud scenery, the effect was entirely in the landscape.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
21 April 1897 – Petit Cochon
It is very quiet here since our party left. There is one American at the hotel besides one Frenchman who is painting the apple-blossoms. Since the arrival of a gay model from Paris there is something to look at. She has been engaged to pose for an artist who will be here in a few days. Like a great man of her class she is arrayed in clothing of the most striking kind and a most gorgeous hat.
Among the characters of the town there are two who will attract attention to a visitor. One is a half-witted fellow of small stature who goes under the cognomen of “Petit Cochon.”* He occupies his spare time in making and selling coarse brooms made from brush. These fetch the price of two sous.** He is very fond of cigarette and cigar stubbs and the patron of our hotel collects a cup-full each morning to deliver to this creature on his daily rounds. He eats them with great relish. The other character is a blind man and his dog. The latter appears to be the chief object of interest as it is an animal of remarkable intelligence. The man holds a cord which is attached to the dog and the animal pilots the whole route and stops at the houses where the people have given alms before. The old man can scarcely know where he is until he hears a familiar voice. The patron said that the dog always passed by a certain house where they never gave anything and one day someone came out with a sou. After that the dog always stopped at the house on each weekly journey around the town. They always took the middle of the road and when a vehicle came along the dog drew off to the side and waited for it to go by.
*Petit Cochon translation – little pig
[Transcription by Kim Black]
[Today, 1 USD = 1,904,989.996 sous. $1 in 1897 is worth $34.18 today.]
22 April 1897 – Montigny & Marlotte
We decided on taking a walk and set out in the morning for the next town, Montigny which is about five or more miles distant on the river Loring. The roads are splendid and we missed our bicycles – except a one part of the road which lay in a hollow in the forest of Fontainebleau that was flooded deep from the recent rains. We were able to get around by walking in the woods for about a quarter mile. The forest was not particularly interesting as the trees are not numerous enough to make it very dense. These little country towns have a Sabbath-Day stillness about them that is so different from the bustle and joyous hum of the streets of Paris. Montigny proved to be a picturesque little town with its customary church and stone houses, its mills at the dam, and the usual stone arched bridge and green meadows. Hazard was here in December and soon espied an old acquaintance Mr. Deacon who was sketching some apple-blossoms on the riverbank. Mr. Deacon was very kind and invited us to his house for déjeûner* and we accepted with alacrity. Mr. Deacon is an Englishman and has a charming villa with a couple of acres of garden and trees. With his family and surroundings it makes a most ideal home for an artist. We appreciated his hospitality very much but he was evidently glad to be able to meet a few of the English-speaking people as they are very scarce during the winter and early spring months. Mr. Deacon is a man of some wealth and is able to enjoy life without those discomforts and denials that confront the struggling young artist. We spent some time in his studio examining his studies and pictures and a number of copies of Valasquez that were scattered around the house. Then we journed on to the next town, Marlotte where H. spent a few weeks in December. This did not compare with Moret as a sketching ground as it lacked the variety. We stopped at the home of Mr. Hazleton the etcher and remained there some time looking at the great number of paintings and other works of art that fairly covered the walls. Mr. Hazelton was not at home but his wife made us remain until she could show us all the articles of interest. Mrs. H. is a sister of the famous French landscape painter Cazin and there were many examples of his works on the walls.
* déjeûner = to eat lunch
[Transcription by Kim Black]
23 April 1897 – Cazin Painting (no diary entry)
24 April 1897 РMonet F̻te
There will be a large fête in Moret tomorrow and the town is filling up with booths, merry-go-rounds, and house wagons. We will leave this afternoon for Paris and escape the celebration. I had a great thirst for reading after the day’s work was done and scoured the hotel for everything that was printed in English. Finally I exhausted what little there was and left a sermon on “the last days in the life of Christ” for the last.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
25 April 1897 – 7 Rue Delambre
Back again in my little den or cage in the “Menagerie” as we call our hotel with it numerous balconies and numbered doors.* Everywhere that I go today I hear of nothing but the “Salon” and the comparisons, criticisms, and general review of the merits of the pictures.
*No. 7 Rue Delambre has sheltered many Americans in the past. My cage was once occupied by Heil a year ago.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
[Per Google, 7 Rue Delambre is now a bar]
26 April 1897 – Salon du Champ de Mars
I saw my first Salon exhibition this afternoon and visited what is called the “New Salon” or the Salon Champ de Mars which is held in one of the great exposition buildings of the fair of 1889.* It is an exhausting effort to attempt to view some fifteen-hundred pictures and in about three hours I sank into a chair and made no further efforts to see the sculpture and the water-colors. I shall have to go many times before I can make any comments upon the works that struck me as being good. There are many huge canvases that must have taken a year’s work for the artist. There are hosts of Impressionists that present all phases of sunlight of the most glaring kind, there are huge marine pictures that will make you feel that the sea is truly remarkable and wonderful and a place where no sane person would dare venture. There are those men who paint the horrors of war and slaughter, others that are sentimental and try to depict the passions, and there are the freaks attempting to do something eccentric and novel with the hope of producing a sensation and winning a lot of notoriety.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
27 April 1897 – St. Cloud
We held our last and farewell studio gathering last night and wound up our season of gaiety with a celebration over the customary punch. Mr. and Mrs. Wyeth will leave for England in a few days and the boys are to follow them later. The Misses Olcott and Baumann are also going to England. We had a very quiet time in comparison to many of our former affairs. On this occasion there was not the noise, the discordant singing, the dancing, and general hilarity. Glover and Logan have reformed very much recently and are showing marked influence and decided affection for the fair sex. Oh these girls from Chicago!
We are having some real summer weather that is warm and delightful. This is the season of the year when Paris can be seen at its best. Cartwright, Logan, and I took the steamboat for St. Cloud and spent the day in the Park. St. Cloud is a small town of over 5,000 inhabitants and lies on the left bank of the Seine opposite the larger town on Boulogne. It contained an ancient château which is now in ruins, being destroyed by a shell in the war of 1870. It had a very notable history from the time of Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, and the meetings here of the Council of Five Hundred which Bonaparte dis___ed and caused himself to be proclaimed First Consul; once Blüchess headquarters, and later residence of Charles X, and finally the summer residence of Napoleon III. During the occupation of the town by the Germans in 1870 the château and much of the town was destroyed. The park contains almost a thousand acres much of which is densely wooded with groves of horse-chestnut which are now in full bloom. There are many fountains and cascades on the hill side surrounded by terraces and gardens and arranged in classic style. The heights command a splendid view of the country before Paris and of the Seine. We had brought a magazine and after stretching out on some benches Logan read a story aloud. Curiously enough the story concerned the very spot where we were now visiting and the scene was laid about the old château and the woods.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
28 April 1897 – “Old Salon”
I visited the “Old Salon” or the Salon du Champs Élysées in the Palais de l’Industrié. It is a tremendous exhibition of some three thousand paintings and much sculpture besides the other arts as architectural drawings, tapestries, decorations, and stained glass. Here is where the majority of the great painters of France expose their works, and the vast army of the Hors Concour* men who have received their medals and are exempt from passing before the jury. The collection is a varied mixture of all kinds of work from the rigid academic (which is entirely absent at the New Salon) to the most modern ideas of realism in color and technique. The work of this Salon as a whole impressed me more than the other as being much more serious in character and more interesting. There are lots of bad works by the older men who have seen their best days, and lots of the theatrical works of battle scenes, suicides, murders, sentimental and effete love subjects. There are also lots of semi-political pictures painted mainly for the hope that the government may purchase the work. There are countless representations of the recent visit of the Czar to Paris – and the various places he visited – and very much more of it than can be found in the New Salon.** Yet there is a larger number of good works and things of human interest – not mere performances that are apt to dazzle the subject by their brilliancy of execution, but good old solid painting that keeps a high level and above the rubbish of much of Impressionism and far away from the mud and blackness of the old school. The tendency of the New Salon is toward realism. The Old Salon is so raised that it has no particular tendency. If we were to judge this Salon by the works of many of the leading painters of France we might say it was a farce. It is simply extraordinary that they should be so poorly represented as a whole. Their strength is well known by their previous works and some of them seem to be on the verge of second childhood. This may seem rather harsh but I have heard no favorable comments in any quarter in reference to the works of the great Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. Bougereau and Henner may be past their prime but these other two men are supposed to be in the height of their skill. One does not need be an artist or a critÃc to judge of the nature and truth that is lacking in the portraits exhibited by these men. Fortunately, the young men hold up the Salon and make it what it is.
* Hors Concours = standout
** William’s footnote – Another amusing feature of the Old Salon are the vast numbers of “tableaux” representing the much abused subject of Notre Dame at sunset. Joan of Arc is always conspicuous in most every room and is almost as popular a subject as the “Holy Family” which still yields astonishing conceptions with modern ideas.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
29 April 1897
Zorn seems to be entitled to carry away the honors at the New Salon with two with two portraits that are painted with his wonderful dash and spirit and so full of life and color as to give a startling impression that is at once so pleasing and satisfactory that the portraits in the rest of the collection appear to lack much life. He paints with the directness of a master and his cleverness is the talk of the town. A huge canvas by Gervex that represents a great assembly of people in the Palais de l’Industrié is highly colored and finished in a realistic manner that would please the ordinary spectator. It is a faithful reproduction of facts. Of this painter Will H. Low said he would please those people who had obtained their ideas of art and nature from photography. Of the many other large works their size is their chief distinction.
Carolus Duran is now an old man and was once among the leading portrait painters but his few canvases seem to lack the qualities that made him so famous.
Dagnan-Bouveret has no important work and exposes a few small portraits which are good but do not give an idea of his strength as a painter of masterpieces.
Lhermitte the peasant painter also exposes a few small works which are of open-air life that are as usual splendid compositions and rendered in his pecular color and manner. I like his color in his pastels much better than in these works in oils as it is much truer to nature. These works show a great improvement in his feeling for color over the large work which is in the Luxumburg Gallery.
[Transcription by Kim Black]
30 Apr 1897 – MUSÉE DE CLUNY
The remains of the ancient Roman baths which stand on the corner of the Boulevards St. Germain and St. Michael right in the heart of the most animated portion of le Quartier Latin are among the very oldest and most interesting ruins and relics in Paris. On the same site now stands the famous H̫tel de Cluny, a museum now belonging to the municipality of Paris. The remains of the thermes* or baths adjoin the building and convey an excellent idea of the substantial methods employed by the ancient Romans in their buildings. The weight and moisture of a garden which lay above it for many years down to 1810 have left it uninjured. The Mus̩e de Cluny contains a tremendous collection of medieval and antique relics and objects of art Рsome 11,000 in number which would delight an antiquarian forever. Rooms of carvings in wood and metals, statues, busts, armor of all kinds and ages, collections of many kinds like shoes from various countries; furniture of any century but our own; medals, old books, mirrors, leather hangings, tapestries, ecclesiastical vestments; laces; bronzes, pottery, china, porcelain, cut glass; musical instruments; jewels; embroideries; enamels, stained glass; cabinets containing myriads of dazzling articles of ivory and rock crystal; works in iron, locks, tools, knockers, andirons; collections of spoons, forks, knives, clocks, book bindings, etc. There are about a dozen rooms loaded with these things mentioned and an immense pile besides which would take weeks to examine carefully.
*thermes = hot springs