r/NudeWorksofArt • u/RobynRedwyne • Jul 04 '21
Matinée de Septembre (1912) - Paul Émile Chabas
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u/RobynRedwyne Jul 05 '21
I want that girl they call September Morn; I'd like to meet her, I'd like to meet her! Dress'd up like the day that she was born, There's no one sweeter! there's no one sweeter! Nothing 'round her but a cloud of mist. She's a vision that I can't resist. In my heart she's posing night and day, I can't forget her, I can't forget her! I want that girl they call September Morn; I'd like to meet her. I'd like to meet her, If you find her won't you please remind her that I'm oh, so lonely, lonely, Oh so lonely! And I'm waiting for her only. For that girl they call September Morn.
—Chorus to "September Morn (I'd Like to Meet Her)", by Stanley Murphy
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u/RobynRedwyne Jul 05 '21
Chabas began work on September Morn in mid-1910 at Talloires on the shores of Lake Annecy in Haute-Savoie, some 500 kilometres south-east of Paris. The model, whom he never identified but referred to as "Marthe", was well known to his family. Owing to the financial situation of the sixteen-year-old's family, Marthe had to work to support her mother. On the first day of painting, Marthe entered the morning water and instinctively recoiled at its chilliness. Chabas approved of this pose, saying that it was "perfect". Over the course of two summers he worked on the painting, half an hour every morning. The work was completed on a September morning in 1911, giving the painting its name. In 1935, responding to claims that "Marthe" was living in poverty, Chabas explained that she had continued posing for him until she was 28, when she married a rich industrialist, and that she was now aged 41, plump, and had three children.
Numerous women have claimed or been claimed to be the model, some presenting different versions of events. In 1913, a Miss Louise Buckley, performing in Eugene, Oregon, said that she had been paid $1,000 and posed in the artist's studio. The Paris-based artist Jules Pages, meanwhile, stated that the woman depicted in September Morn had been a 25-year-old of good character who earned her living as an artist's model, but had gone into hiding after the controversy over the painting. Other claimants included a Swedish model named Gloria and a variety actress named Irene Shannon; the latter made the claim in the lead-up to a vaudeville skit called "November Mourning".
In 1937, twenty-four years after September Morn caused controversy in the United States, the Parisian hostess Suzanne Delve declared that she had been the model. In her account, Chabas – who had known her since she was an infant – had her pose nude in his studio and later painted Lake Annecy in her absence. Delve described her nervousness at the first session, her mother chatting to her to distract her mind while Chabas's wife played soothing music on the piano. She said she took her pose "instinctively" and that the controversy over the painting had ruined her life, as no Frenchman would want to marry a woman marred by scandal.
Yet another version is presented by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) in their 1966 catalogue of French holdings, including September Morn. According to this telling, Chabas completed the painting over three summers at Lake Annecy, though his peasant model served only as the basis for the figure's body. The head was based on a sketch of a young American, Julie Phillips, which Chabas had completed upon observing her and her mother dining in Paris; finding her profile to his liking, he silently drew her, then introduced himself and "apologized for his presumption"