Marguerite Agniel (1891 – c. 1971) was a

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

actress and dancer, and then a health and beauty guru in New York in the early 20th century. She is known for her 1931 book ''The Art of the Body: Rhythmic Exercise for Health and Beauty'', one of the first to combine yoga and nudism.

Early life

Marguerite, born 21 January 1891, was one of the six children of George Agniel, an Indiana farmer, and Ada Lescher Flowers. Her father died in 1893 while she was an infant, leaving her mother to raise all the children. The Agniel family was French-Jewish; her mother's family was English. She was married in New York on 21 March 1917. She performed in Broadway plays including ''The Amber Empress'' with music by Zoel Parenteau in 1916, and Raymond Hitchcock's ''Pin Wheel'' in 1922.

Author

She appeared in the 15 November 1926 issue of ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', demonstrating slimming exercises in the form of floor stretches, with postures close to the

yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consci ...

asanas

Salabhasana Salabhasana or Purna Salabhasana ( sa, शलभासन; IAST: ''Śalabhāsana''), Locust pose, or Grasshopper pose is a prone back-bending asana in modern yoga as exercise. Etymology and origins The asana's name comes from the Sanskrit श ...

, Supta Virasana, Sarvangasana and Halasana. She wrote for ''

Physical Culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

'' magazine in 1927 and 1928. In 1931 Agniel wrote the book ''The Art of the Body: Rhythmic Exercise for Health and Beauty'', illustrated mainly with photographs of herself; she notes in the Preface that her dance technique derives from Ruth St. Denis (who in turn followed

François Delsarte François Alexandre Nicolas Chéri Delsarte (19 November 1811 – 20 July 1871) was a French singer, orator, and coach. Though he achieved some success as a composer, he is chiefly known as a teacher in singing and declamation (oratory). Applie ...

), but that her "system of 'aesthetic athletics'" was based mainly on that of

Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pu ...

, an advocate of

physical culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

. She names the

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists a ...

Havelock Ellis Henry Havelock Ellis (2 February 1859 – 8 July 1939) was an English physician, eugenicist, writer, progressive intellectual and social reformer who studied human sexuality. He co-wrote the first medical textbook in English on homosexuality i ...

and the

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

Sigmund Spaeth Sigmund Gottfried Spaeth (April 10, 1885 – November 12, 1965) was an American musicologist who traced the sources and origins of popular songs to their folk and classical roots. Presenting his findings through books, lectures, liner notes, newsp ...

as major influences, stating that both had shown "an extraordinarily intuitive understanding" of her work. Agniel wrote a piece called "The Mental Element in Our Physical Well-Being" for '' The Nudist'', an American magazine, in 1938; it showed nude women practising yoga, accompanied by a text on attention to the breath. The social historian Sarah Schrank comments that it made perfect sense at this stage of the development of

yoga in America Yoga in the United States has a long history, foreshadowed in the 19th century by the philosophers Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose poem "Brahma" is a statement of the Hindu philosophy behind yoga, and Henry David Thoreau, and starting in earnest with ...

to combine nudism and yoga, as "both were exercises in healthful living; both were countercultural and bohemian; both highlighted the body; and both were sensual without being explicitly erotic." File:Marguerite Agniel in a Buddha position with her legs crossed Wellcome V0048585.jpg, In "Buddha position",

Muktasana Siddhasana ( sa, सिद्धासन; ) or Accomplished Pose, is an ancient seated asana in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise suitable for meditation. The names Muktasana (Sanskrit: मुक्तासन, Liberated Pose) and Burmese ...

. Photograph by

John de Mirjian John de Mirjian (4 July 1896 – 24 September 1928) was an Armenian American glamour photographer, based in New York, and famous for his images of celebrities, sometimes in risque poses. His brother Arto de Mirjian continued the business after John ...

, c. 1928 File:Marguerite Agniel in Supta Virasana.jpg, In Supta Virasana, demonstrating "A good exercise for the back and abdominal muscles". Photograph by

, c. 1928 File:Marguerite Agniel as Mona Lisa by Robert Henri.jpg, "As

Mona Lisa The ''Mona Lisa'' ( ; it, Gioconda or ; french: Joconde ) is a Half length portrait, half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described ...

" by

Robert Henri Robert Henri (; June 24, 1865 – July 12, 1929) was an American painter and teacher. As a young man, he studied in Paris, where he identified strongly with the Impressionists, and determined to lead an even more dramatic revolt against A ...

, c. 1929 File:Marguerite Agniel July-1923.jpg, Topless, c. 1923

Reception

Her friend the sexologist

wrote in a letter to Louise Stevens Bryant (17 May 1936) that Agniel's books were "full of beautiful illustrations, nearly all of herself. She has a wonderful art of posing, & they are largely nudes, though she is no longer young." Agniel is depicted in an "elegant, though sharply ironic"

Palladium Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...

photographic print by the Canadian photographer Margaret Watkins, "Head and Hand". It shows her hand holding a portrait sculpture head of herself by

Jo Davidson Jo Davidson (March 30, 1883 – January 2, 1952) was an American sculptor. Although he specialized in realistic, intense portrait busts, Davidson did not require his subjects to formally pose for him; rather, he observed and spoke with them. H ...

. This was one in a series of portraits of Agniel by Watkins that Agniel used in ''The Art of the Body''. Devon Smither describes Agniel as "a leading health and beauty guru", and ''the Art of the Body'' as "a moralizing exercise manual" providing a mixture of exercises, advice on cosmetics, and spiritual guidance. The scholars Mary O'Connor and Katherine Tweedie comment on Watkins's portraits of Agniel that they were circulated sometimes as artistic "nudes", sometimes as portraits, and sometimes as instances of "a regime of exercise and body modification". They write that since Agniel chose to use these photographs of herself, she is presenting them "not as the passive victim of an objectifying male gaze ... but as the means of promulgating her own vision of the world and her own expertise. She circulates her body as an image of the ideal and for commercial profit."

Works

* 1931 ''The Art of the Body''. London: Batsford. * 1931 "Dancing Mothers and Dancing Daughters", ''Hygeia'' 9:344-348 * 1933 ''Body Sculpture''. New York: E.H. & A.C. Friedrichs. * 1936 ''Your Figure''. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran & Company.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agniel, Marguerite 1891 births 1971 deaths American stage actresses 20th-century American dancers 20th-century American women writers American people of French-Jewish descent Jewish American actresses Jewish dancers People associated with physical culture 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American non-fiction writers

Early life

Author

Reception

Works

See also

References