Other popular ateliers for women were those run by well-known painters such as Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) and Édouard Krug (1829-1901). Women often studied at several of these academies simultaneously, or progressed from one to another, or entered one to continue later at another. Paul Henry offers an explanation as to why students, such as Gray, moved on from the Académie Julian saying ‘a prolonged course of making accurate drawings from the nude model had taught me that however earnest and painstaking I might be, I might go on for years just doing this one thing and I had seen enough of the results of such teaching in the schools to realise it was a blind alley’.66
2.16 Frances Hodgkins, November 1912, black and white photograph © Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand
Haweis in his memoirs said that he did not remain long at the Académie as he decided to study at other studios in the Montparnasse quarter. He studied at the Académie Julian in 1899-1900. Henry and Haweis later enrolled in a new art school, the Académie Whistler, better known as the Académie Carmen, where they became inseparable. The two friends, along with Scottish artist Francis Cadell explored Paris, meeting frequently for walks around the city and immersing themselves in its artistic and cultural life. He then went on to study in other studios under the famous Czech artist and illustrator Alphonse Mucha and Eugène Carrière (1849-1906). Haweis is recorded as attending evening classes at the École Colarossi in 1902. After becoming interested in photography, he met Auguste Rodin and subsequently photographed many of the sculptor’s pieces.
Attending several studios enabled students to compare what each offered and choose what they wished from each. During her early years in France, Gray apparently took summer classes in Caudebec-en-Caux, Normandy under the guidance of Frances Hodgkins (1869-1947).67 Hodgkins became the first female teacher employed at the École Colarossi in 1910. Regrettably, Gray destroyed her artwork from this student period. Only a very competent figurative study remains.68 That Gray became an accomplished artist during these formative years at the Académie Julian is proved by the fact that she had a painting accepted at the Salon. Writing to Haweis on 17 October 1965 she says; ‘I was pleased to get a painting received at the Salon, chiefly because it reduced the family opposition to my staying in Paris’.69
2.17 Old Woman, Caudebec, by Frances Hodgkins, 1901, watercolour and gouache © Collection of the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
After completing their art studies both Gray and Haweis’s lives went in separate directions. Gray settled permanently in Paris, taking her apartment in the rue Bonaparte by 1906, and she continued the studies in lacquer which she began in London. Haweis, now married, began working for Rodin. Gray’s circle expanded, primarily through her flowering profession as a designer of lacquer furniture and with developing friendships and acquaintances with many from the Left Bank cognoscenti. Stephen Haweis maintained contact with many of their circle throughout his life, including Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), Augustus John (1878-1961), Romaine Brooks, Gerald Kelly, John Lavery, Katherine Constance Lloyd (op. 1923-1940) and William Somerset Maugham. But by 1950 he wrote to Eileen Gray that he heard ‘very little from anybody of Paris from their early days’.70 However, through their letters they discuss what happened to the people in their milieu.
2.18 Gertrude Stein with her brothers, Paris, 1906, black and white photograph © The Granger Collection/ Topfoto
Out of their Parisian circle of 1902-3 Gray remained close with Jessie Gavin. Gavin was born in 1876 to Crichton Strachan Gavin and Ann Sophia Lord. In 1915 she married René Raoul Duval, a wealthy restaurateur, and subsequently changed her name to Jacqueline (Jackie). After Haweis married Loy, Gray and the Duvals went on holiday for four weeks to Tunisia. In 1905 Gray also travelled to Algiers with the Duvals, where she caught typhoid and nearly died. She convalesced in the south of France in Hyères. In her letters Gray writes how she was so very fond of Gavin. A distance had occurred for a time between them due to the influence of two other friends, Yolande de Gail and Olive Pixley who was also friends with Gray’s sister Thora.71 Gavin died in 1939. Gray wrote to Haweis saying; ‘One by one all those friends have gone and even others who came after, but I still miss Gavin’.72
Kathleen Bruce changed her name to Scott on her first marriage, and later became Baroness Kennet, subsequently enjoying a career as a renowned British sculptor. Bruce had befriended Gray and Gavin at the Slade and had lived with Jessie Gavin when they first arrived in Paris. Bruce remained at the Colarossi until 1906. She befriended Rodin, but returned to London by 1907 where she met Captain Robert Falcon Scott (1868-1912) and married him in 1908. In February 1913, while sailing back to New Zealand to greet Scott on his return, she learned of his death in Antarctica the previous March in 1912. In 1922 she married Edward Hilton Young, first Baron Kennet (1879-1960). She exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1913 and 1947, and was very successful as a sculptor, primarily of bronze portrait busts and semi allegorical figures. Her style conformed to conventional academic sculpture and did not reflect new trends. A book of photographs, Homage, a book of Sculpture by Kathleen Scott, with a foreword by Stephen Gywnn was published in 1938.
2.19 Kathleen Scott (née Bruce, later Lady Kennet) with her son Sir Peter Markham Scott; (Edith Agnes), by Graphic Photo Union, 1913, bromide print © National Portrait Gallery, London
Bruce in her letters to Haweis informed him that she had fallen into great poverty after Scott’s death.73 Haweis empathised with her. Gray was not as understanding. For reasons known only to Bruce she gave Jessie Gavin and Gray – her two friends – pseudonyms in her autobiography. Eileen was Hermione and Jessie was Joselyn. Bruce thought Gray’s behaviour at the École Colarossi unconventional and unbecoming of a lady.74 The friendship between Gray, Gavin and Bruce became strained when Bruce noticed an affection developing between Gray and Gavin, of which she disapproved. ‘I was never at ease with them, but it was many years before I discovered why’.75 ‘One evening a tall, thin, shy, nice looking youth in corduroys and a Norfolk jacket came in. This was Joselyn [Jessie], wearing a wig and a slightly blackened moustache. “We’ll go to places and play chess where you can’t go without a man’”.76 After certain hours is was considered highly improper for a lady to be unchaperoned by a gentleman in certain cafés. Gray seemingly recalled ‘with much amusement the time when she and Jessie entered a bar and the band struck up the Spanish national anthem because Jessie in her male attire looked so Spanish’.77 This was unorthodox behaviour in Bruce’s eyes.
Bruce’s tentative relationship with Gray finally fell sour when Bruce’s cousin Henry, a musician for whom she had affection became enamoured with Gray. Henry Bruce was half Greek, half Scottish and often took Gray out all night. Gray described him as good-looking and well read.78 Gray forgot