The club Where American women artists found refuge in Belle Époque Paris

American women artists in Paris from 1893 to 1914 found a home in the American Girls' Art Club created by Elisabeth Mills Reid and Helen Pert Newell. Dasal (ArtCurious, 2020) traces the club's history and tells the stories of the women who resided there in a lively and engaging narrative supported by extensive research. The building, located at 4 Rue de Chevreuse in the heart of the Sixth Arrondissement, would later serve as a Red Cross hospital and today is the site of Columbia University's Reid Hall. Although Anne Goldthwaite, Florence Lundberg, Grace Turnbull, and Meta Vaux Warrick may not be well known today, their time at the club saw them interact with some very big names indeed, including Auguste Rodin and Gertrude Stein. Reproductions of some of their work punctuate the text, which often includes excerpts from their correspondence and newspaper articles of the day. A welcome addition to the growing body of literature about American women artists that will also appeal to readers interested in women's history and the history of Western European culture.

Belle Époque Paris was seen by Americans as permissive, temptation-laden, and dangerous, but also, after a disastrous U.S. showing at the 1867 World's Exposition, as the only place worth going to learn about modern art, according to this evocative account. Dasal (ArtCurious; also the name of her podcast) unearths how the American Girls' Club, a Parisian boarding house, emerged as an avenue by which ambitious American women could access the city's cutting-edge arts scene. Free from the squalor and, more significantly, the mingling of the sexes commonplace in Parisian society, the Club helped (mostly wealthy, but some quite poor) young women make the sojourn seem more palatable to concerned families. Dasal begins by profiling philanthropist Elisabeth Mills Reid, who in 1893 founded the Club as a "respectable" alternative to the Latin Quarter's raucous American "Colony." Subsequent profiles of the Club's denizens bring the era to vivid life, enumerating their chance encounters with Gertrude Stein and lessons with Rodin. Dasal's almost forensic analysis of the students' trajectories demonstrates how the Club, though largely forgotten today despite having produced notable artists like Marguerite Thompson Zorach and Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, was a significant engine of the era's artistic creation and also an important landmark in women's history, as its students were among the earliest American women professionals, with many returning home to work as commercial artists. Readers will be engrossed. (July)

Host of the podcast ArtCurious and former curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Dasal (Art Curious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History) has not written a stuffy history but rather the engaging story of Belle Époque Paris (1870--1914) and the American women artists who lived, studied, and worked there. She focuses on the American Girls' Club in Paris, a residence that kept these women as safe as possible while providing them and their concerned families with affordable accommodation and peace of mind. They were contemplative, serious, and successful artists whose watchwords were study and work. While providing an in-depth look into the opportunities afforded the women in Paris, Dasal does an excellent job of placing these adventuresome artists into the social milieu of their era. World War I precipitated closing the Club and turning the building into a medical facility. Dasal gives readers closure, telling of the artists' lives after leaving the residence and of the building's use in its post-Club life. Thoroughly researched and documented, this book offers numerous black-and-white images of period and contemporary artworks and photos. VERDICT Written with humor in an informal, almost chatty style, this book will appeal to readers interested in history, art, and sociology.--Nancy J. Mactague

A Parisian refuge. Art historian Dasal draws generously on letters, memoirs, and contemporary reports to recover the history of the American Girls' Club, which opened in 1893 as a home base for American women studying art in Paris. Those aspiring artists faced challenges in the U.S., where society frowned upon women wanting to make a career in art, and where parents were reluctant to allow their daughters to travel abroad. Many, nevertheless, had studied at prestigious American art schools, and they considered further instruction in Paris as "the last step toward professionalism." Once they managed to make their way there, they faced new challenges: living on a strict budget, finding a hospitable atelier, and learning to navigate in a new milieu. The Club, then, met a real need for a growing number of women, which by 1888 had reached more than 800. It was established by two Americans, Helen Newell, a minister's wife, and Elisabeth Mills Reid, the wife of diplomat Whitelaw Reid who had fond memories of studying in Paris as a teenager. Started as a small gathering space where women could stop in for a cup of tea, the Club expanded into a full residence two years later, offering bare-bones but comfortable housing for some 40 residents, a reasonably priced restaurant, an English-language library, a social space, and free daily afternoon tea. "The ability of Club-goers to speak a common language, both literally and metaphorically," Dasal writes, "eased the pain of adjusting to an unfamiliar land and culture and thus provided women with a near instant social circle." Dasal brings to light a cast of talented, courageous women whose lives, and art, defied expectations; her engaging history pays homage to the singular space that nurtured them. A fresh look at female artists. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.