Who came before us
A
brief history of literary and music salons
Tea
and Talk . . . Jewish women and their salons
- a progressive driving force
From the 1780s as the Enlightenment was
in full swing and French salons were already
a traditional social institution, German
Jews and non-Jews began to mingle (over
tea-tables) "in Berlin where Jewish
hostesses of charm, learning, and wit furthered
the cultural exchange between statesmen,
philosophers, and Romantic artists"
(www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org).
Jewish women in Berlin and Vienna formed
a disproportionately large number of these
cultural salons as a response to gender
and anti-Semitic restrictions. Some of them
"were able to use their salons to exert
significant influence on artistic and political
affairs. However, "non-Jewish guests
continued to express anti-Semitic views
in private, and rarely reciprocated the
invitations of their hostesses" (Daniel
Harkett's review of 'Jewish Women and Their
Salons: The Power of Conversation' by Bilski,
et al).
The
first and most distinguished Berlin salon
was hosted by Henriette Herz, a highly educated
and multi-lingual woman, an admirer of Goethe
and the Romantics. Soon the salon of Rahel
Levin Varnhagen overshadowed Herz's. Rahel,
although well educated in literature, was
more captivated by people's thoughts, feelings,
opinions, and perceptions.
Amelie
Beer and Fanny Hensel were also influential
salonnières. Moses Mendelssohn's
daughter, Dorothea, introduced Victor Hugo
to the German reader through her salon.
In Vienna, one of the most esteemed salons
was hosted by Fanny von Arnstein. The Duke
of Wellington, Lord Nelson, and his lover,
Lady Hamilton, frequented her salon.
Fanny
von Arnstein created an atmosphere in which
artists and musicians,
writers and poets, nobles and intellectuals,
both Jewish and non-Jewish, could socialize
in comfort and discuss the ideas of the
day. . . Her salon became the center of
a cooperating salon network of intellectual
and musical women in Vienna
Petra Wilhelmy-Dollinger
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/
And,
if you happened to have joined Fanny's sister,
Sarah Levy, at her Berlin musical salon,
you certainly would have encountered the
brothers Wilhelm and Carl Philipp Bach.
In
the late 19th century, you would have longed
for an invitation to the salons of Ada Leverson,
who welcomed Oscar Wilde to her home, and
salonnière, Genevieve Straus, as
well as the salon of journalist, novelist,
and art critic, Berta Zuckerkandle. Berta's
wide circle of friends in the last decades
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire included
Rodin, Klimt, and Max Reinhardt. Berta "fought
for nearly half a century for the recognition
of modern Austrian art, cultural and political
dialogue between Austria and France, and
humanist causes" (Elana Shapira - Jewish
Women's Archive). Gustav Mahler met his
wife, Alma Schindler, at her salon. The
story of the Mahler marriage provides for
good reading. It was a difficult and tempestuous
affair (http://www.alma-mahler.com/engl/on_tour/01_a_life_full_of_passion.html).
And,
then, of course, there is Gertrude Stein.
Salonnière extraordinaire in the
late 19th/early 20th centuries. Her guest
list regularly included Picasso, Hemingway,
Fitzgerald, and Matisse. Her intimate Saturday
evening gatherings at 27 rue de Fleurus
hosted speakers, performers, and art - a
meeting of the minds that would help define
modernism in literature and the arts. Most
anyone was welcome. If you had been a visitor,
surely Gertrude would have greeted you with
an "Entrez-vous," and, as you
were shown inside, you may have witnessed
Picasso and Hemingway sparring over the
most profound ideas of the age. But she
wasn't the only game in town. American Natalie
Clifford Barney hosted luminaries such as
Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot to her Paris home.
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