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ABSTRACT
At the dawn of the twentieth century, styles synonymous with the French Old Regime were hailed as the epitome of good taste. French fashions from the reigns of Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI were an international luxury brand, the proliferation of which seemed to announce the rise of “new money” and transatlantic alliances. This was a defiantly cosmopolitan and opulent mode of building and decorating, which was often dissonant with its immediate surroundings. Taking the example of Oldway Mansion in Devon – created by the American entrepreneur Isaac Merritt Singer in the 1870s and transformed by his son Paris Eugène Singer in the 1890s into a the “Versailles of the West Country” – this article reflects on the elusive but pervasive contribution of Jews to the popularity of French revivalism in the fin-de-siècle. It argues for the entanglement of Jewishness with other national and class identities and insists on considering not just the identity of the patron or the architect, but the wider network of artists, decorators and art dealers who specialized in recreating the elegance of the Old Regime. It explores what role Jewish patrons and art professionals played in disseminating French historicist styles among a dynamic, global elite.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Tom Stammers is Associate Professor in European Cultural History at The University of Durham. His first book, The Purchase of the Past: Collecting Culture in Post-Revolutionary Pari’ will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. He had published widely on the history of collecting, museums, connoisseurship, cultural heritage and the legacies of the French Revolution, and is a regular contributor to the arts magazine, Apollo. In addition to new research on the Orleans family after 1848, he is the co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project, “The Jewish Country House: Objects, Networks, People” (2019–2023).
Notes
1 Bedoire, The Jewish Contribution to Modern Architecture, 8, 16, 90.
2 Rubinstein, “Jewish Top Wealth-Holders,” 136–7.
3 Endelman, The Jews of Britain, 155–6.
4 Endelman, “Aestheticism,” 122–36.
5 Muthesius, The Poetic Home, 278–80.
6 Girouard, The Victorian Country House, 291.
7 Michael Hall, The Victorian Country House, 44.
8 See Diana Davis’ essay in this special issue, as well as her forthcoming book with Getty Publications.
9 Newton, Victorian Designs, 68–9, 72–3.
10 Birnbaum, Les fous de la République.
11 Stammers, “Catholics, Collectors and the Commune,” 53–87.
12 Carey, Theatres of Life, 17–18.
13 See the auction advert in Surrey Mirror, 25 June 1915. I am grateful to Elizabeth Steven for sharing her Worth Park research.
14 Whiteley, “Collectors,” 54–8; Kisluk-Grosheide and Munger, The Wrightsman Galleries; Ford, “Buckland Park.”
15 Cooper, The Opulent Eye, pl.11, pl.14, pl.91, pl.141, pl.151, pl.178, pl.180.
16 Kuhrau, Der Kuntsammler, 9–19, 91–3.
17 Allfrey, The Prince of Wales.
18 Cited in Adam, 37–8.
19 See Hall, “Le gout Rothschild,” 101–16.
20 Cited in Mordaunt-Crook, The Rise, 63.
21 Cited in Bryant, The Wernher Collection, 15.
22 Julius, Trials of the Diaspora, 376.
23 Musson, The English Manor House, 8.
24 Gere, Nineteenth-Century Decoration, 334.
25 Jarassé, Existe-t-il un art juif? 208.
26 Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse, 3.
27 For the contrasting views, see Cruz-Fernandez, ‘Isaac M. Singer, https://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=210.
28 Braddon, Singer and the Sewing Machine, 187.
29 Ehrlich, ed. Encyclopaedia, vol. II, 1139; Bedoire, Jewish Contribution, 434.
30 Steinberg, Jewish Mad Men, 94–5.
31 Saxton, “Singer,” 10, 12.
32 Burk, Old World, 533.
33 Flanders, Consuming 206–51; White, The History of Torquay, 185, 281–2; White, The History or Torquay, 185, 281–2.
34 Hawthorne, Oldway Mansion, 15. I am very grateful to Paul Hawthorne for his assistance in researching and illustrating this article.
35 Morris, French Art, 202–3; Wilson and Mackley, Creating Paradise, 11, 63.
36 Mordaunt-Crook, Nouveaux-Riches, 65; Girouard, Victorian Country House, 293–5.
37 Butterfield, My West Riding Experiences, 25–6.
38 Girouard, Life in the French Country House, 316–7.
39 Oswald, Country Houses of Kent, 42.
40 Girouard, Victorian Country House, 302.
41 Seccombe (revised Michael Reed), “Albert Grant,” https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-11241.
42 Hawthorne, Oldway, 9; Eastley, The Singer Saga, 35.
43 Pearson, The People’s Palaces, 82, 103.
44 Hawthorne, Oldway, 15, 18.
45 Singer, “Memoirs of the late princesse,” 111.
46 See Vottero, “Le salon,” 51–2.
47 “Music in the French Salon,” 108–9.
48 Braddon, Singer, 214.
49 Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse, 102, 108, 117–8, 135.
50 Hawthorne, Oldway, 24, 27, 36–41, 43.
51 Jackson, Hinto, The V&A Guide, 110.
52 Morris, “Hopes and Fears,” vol. XXII, 18.
53 Cited in Neiswander, The Cosmopolitan Interior, 58.
54 Cooper, Opulent Eye, 6–7; Lasc, Interior Decorating, 2.
55 Aslett, The Last Country Houses, 266, 269, 270.
56 Hawthorne, Oldway, 39.
57 Braddon, Singer, 219, 221.
58 Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse, 442.
59 Peyrefitte, Les juifs, 146.
60 Gray, Edwardian Architecture, 158–9, 259; Jamilly, “Anglo-Jewish Architects,” 139.
61 Binney, The Ritz Hotel, London, 2.
62 Lasic, “‘Dignity and Graciousness’,” 202, 204, 207.
63 McNeil, Riello, Luxury, 141, 150.
64 Gray, Edwardian Architecture, 160.
65 See Stevenson, Art & Aspirations.
66 Mordaunt-Crook, Nouveaux-Riches, 47.
67 Leben, “Interiors by Georges Hoentschel,” 48–54.
68 Imbert, The Modernist Garden, 1–9.
69 Duchêne, Les jardins d’avenir, 3, 12.
70 Duchêne, Les jardins d’avenir, 9.
71 Vanderbilt, The Glitter and the Gold, 143–4.
72 Hawthorne, Oldway, 31–2.
73 See Bouvet, “Roses pour un palais défunt,” 21–6.
74 Bertrand, Les curiosités esthétiques, vol. I, 240–1.
75 Melanson, “The Decadent Interior,” 133–4.
76 Prévost-Marcilhacy, Les Rothschild, 272.
77 Stammers, “Collectors, Catholics,” 83–6; Kahan, Music’s Modern Muse, 81–2.
78 See Dwyer, Carolands.
79 Girouard, French Country House, 316–23, 331.
80 Stevenson, Art & Aspirations, 5.
81 Mollot, Les derniers châtelains, 19, 22, 27, 30, 34.
82 Mollot, Les derniers châtelains, 58, 59, 61, 68.
83 Hoganson, “Cosmopolitan Domesticity,” 55–83.
84 Craven, Stanford White, 83, 109.
85 Gregory, The Gilded Age, 120–1.
86 Cornforth, The Inspiration, 11.
87 See the provenance for the painting now at Versailles (Inv no: MV 7156).
88 See Wildenstein and Stavrides, Marchands d’art; Kostyrko, The Journal.
89 Secrest, Duveen, 64–65, 100–1.
90 Hawthorne, Oldway, 67.
91 Banham, Porter, and Macdonald, Victorian Interior Design, 204, 207.
92 Stuart Gray, Edwardian Architecture, 259.
93 Secrest, Duveen, 86.
94 Stephenson, “Edwardian Cosmopolitanism,” 278.
95 Neiswander, Cosmopolitan Interior, 115–78; see also Bedoire, The Jewish Contribution, 122.
96 Auslander, “Jewish Taste?” 299–331.
97 Shapira, Style & Seduction, 6.
98 Prévost-Marcilhacy, Les Rothschild, 180.
99 Curl, Mizner’s Florida, 38.
100 Sznaider, Jewish Memory.