Académie Carmen, also known as Whistler's School, was a short-lived Parisian art school founded by James McNeill Whistler. It operated from 1898 to 1901.

History

The school opened in October 1898 in a large house and stable at No. 6 Passage Stanislas, near the Rue Notre Dame du Champs. The business side of the school was handled by Whistler's former model Carmen Rossi, for whom the school was named, and her musician husband. The number of students was limited to forty, most of whom were women.Elizabeth R. & Joseph Pennell, "The Académie Carmen," in ''The Life of James McNeill Whistler'' (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1911), pp. 373-8

/ref> More than half of them were American, "with several also coming from England, Ireland, and Scotland." Instructors for the first year were Whistler (painting) and American sculptor

Frederick William MacMonnies Frederick William MacMonnies (September 28, 1863 – March 22, 1937) was the best known expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States. He was also a highly accomplishe ...

(life drawing). Whistler taught without pay as a "visiting professor," and appeared once a week to offer criticism. Initially, all the students met in a single class. Whistler made his first appearance at the beginning of the second week, and, at his insistence, the students were separated into women's and men's classes. Experienced students were appointed teaching assistants. The women's class was led by Irish painter Inez Eleanor Bate for the length of the school's tenure. The men's class was led by a series of assistants—American painter Earl Stetson Crawford, Czech painter

Alphonse Mucha Alfons Maria Mucha (; 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorat ...

, Italian painter

Cyrus Cuneo Cyrus Cincinato Cuneo (18 June 187923 July 1916), known as Ciro, was an American-born English visual artist, best known for painting. Early life He was born into an Italian American family of artists and musicians. His parents were Giovann ...

, and lastly, American painter Clifford Addams. With a dearth of sculpture students, MacMonnies left after the first year. In a 1906 magazine article, Cuneo described Whistler's eccentricities, his inability to communicate effectively as a teacher, and his strong favoritism toward the women's class:Cyrus Cuneo, "Whistler's Academy of Painting, Some Parisian Recollections," ''The Pall Mall Magazine'', vol. 38, no. 163 (November 1906), pp. 531-4

/ref> "Instead of sitting down in the usual French fashion and giving each pupil in turn a clear and matter-of-fact criticism, Whistler airily picked his way amongst the easels, glancing here and there, ignoring some canvases altogether, greeting others with 'Yes—yes.' " "Whistler's methods and manner confused the average students who came, but his faith in his system was as great as the students' unbelief." Despite the prestige of his fame and reputation, many of the students dropped out. The frustration of the male students was expressed in a poem Whistler found scrawled on a wall of the men's studio:

''I bought a palette just like his,
His colours and his brush.
The devil of it is, you see,
I did not buy his touch.''

The frustration turned to resentment in the second year. Whistler's apprentice Inez Eleanor Bate recalled: " the latter part of the season he often refused to criticize in the men's class at all. He would call sometimes on Sunday mornings hen the school was empty and take out and place upon easels the various studies that had been done by the men the previous week, and often he would declare that nothing interested him among them and that he should not criticize that week, that he could not face the 'blankness' of the ''atelier''." By the third year, the men's

life class A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...

was cancelled due to lack of students. Whistler was not always in good health, which may have accounted for many of his absences. His doctors recommended convalescence in a warmer climate, and he sent New Year's greetings for 1901 to the students from Corsica. The school continued to struggle, and descended into quarrels and mistrust. "In the end, the want of confidence in him, his illness, and his absence broke up the school." Whistler announced its closing in a letter sent from Corsica, and read aloud to the students on April 6, 1901.Robyn Asleson, "The Idol and His Apprentices: Whistler and the Académie Carmen of Paris," in Linda Merrill, et al., ''After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting'' (Atlanta, GA: High Museum of Art, 2003), pp. 74-84. Whistler's hopes of establishing an art school in London under the management of apprentices Inez Eleanor Bate and Clifford Addams, who married in 1900, were defeated by his continued poor health. He died in London on July 17, 1903, at age 69.

Students

*Lucien Abrams * Clifford Addams (tutor) *

Alice Pike Barney Alice Pike Barney (born Alice Pike; 1857–1931) was an American painter. She was active in Washington, D.C. and worked to make Washington into a center of the arts. Her two daughters were the writer and salon hostess Natalie Clifford Barney and ...

* Frederic Clay Bartlett *Inez Eleanor Bate (tutor) *Carlotta Blaurock * Simon Bussy *Blendon Reed Campbell * Alson S. Clark *Earl Stetson Crawford (tutor) *Cyrus Cuneo (tutor) *Edward Dufner * Mary Foote *

Frederick Carl Frieseke Frederick Carl Frieseke (April 7, 1874 – August 24, 1939) was an American Impressionist painter who spent most of his life as an expatriate in France. An influential member of the Giverny art colony, his paintings often concentrated on various ...

* Louise Elizabeth Garden MacLeod *

Lillian Genth Lillian Mathilde Genth (1876 – March 28, 1953) was an American impressionist artist. She is best known for her depiction of female nudes in landscape settings. However, in the middle of her career she swore off painting female nudes and began p ...

*Mary Hughitt Halliday * Paul Henry *Ilka Howells *Henry Salem Hubbell *Louise Williams Jackson * John Christen Johansen *

Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although s ...

* Lydia Longacre * Will Hicok Low *Alphonse Mucha (tutor) * Mary Augusta Mullikin * Ida Nettleship *

Anna Ostroumova-Lebedeva Anna Petrovna Ostroumova-Lebedeva (russian: Анна Петровна Остроумова-Лебедева, 17 May 1871 — 5 May 1955) was a Russian and Soviet artist most notable for her watercolor painting. She was also one of the pioneers o ...

Lawton S. Parker Lawton S. Parker (7 April 1868 – 1954) was an American impressionist Painting, painter. Biography Born in Fairfield, Michigan, raised in Kearney, Nebraska, Parker studied at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in 1886. He traveled to Fran ...

* Ambrose McCarthy Patterson * Hugh Ramsay * Gwen Salmond *William Otis Swett *Nell Marion Tenison * Eugene Paul Ullman *Mary van der Veer *Hans Albrecht von Harrach *Marie von Rietgenstein * Emmi Walther *Charles Henry White * Alice Woods File:James McNeill Whistler - Rosa y oro la napolitana.jpg, ''La Napolitana'' – ''Carmen Rossi'' (1897) by James Whistler File:James McNeill Whistler 2.jpg, ''James Whistler'' (1898) by Alice Pike Barney File:Mary Foote, Oriental Girl with Doll, Oil on Canvas, 21.5 x 13.25 inches, c.1898-01.jpg, ''Japanese Girl with Doll'' (1898-1901) by Mary Foote File:AlfonsSelf.jpg, ''Self-Portrait'' (1899) by Alphonse Mucha File:Gwen John - Self-portrait (1900).jpg, ''Self-Portrait'' (1900) by Gwen John File:Hugh-ramsay-nude.jpg, ''Nude'' (1900) by Hugh Ramsay File:Self-Portrait, 1901, Frieseke.jpg, ''Self-Portrait'' (1901) by Frederick Carl Frieseke File:Eugene paul ullman, ritratto di madame fisher, 1904 ca.jpg, ''Madame Fisher'' (1904) by Eugene Paul Ullman

References

{{coord missing, France Art schools in Paris Educational institutions established in 1898 Educational institutions disestablished in 1901 James Abbott McNeill Whistler 1898 establishments in France 1901 disestablishments in France