Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page i Earth, Fire, Water, Air Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page ii Image rights unavailable Anne Dangar in her studio, Moly-Sabata, c.1930s Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page iii Earth, Fire, Water, Air Anne Dangar’s letters to Grace Crowley, 1930–1951 Edited by Helen Topliss Allen & Unwin Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page iv This book was undertaken to commemorate and perpetuate Anne Dangar’s legacy First published in 2000 Copyright © Helen Topliss 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10% of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. Allen & Unwin 9 Atchison Street St Leonards NSW 2065 Australia Phone: (61 2) 8425 0100 Fax: (61 2) 9906 2218 Email: [email protected] Web: http://www.allen-unwin.com.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Dangar, Anne, d. 1951. Earth, fire, water, air: Anne Dangar’s letters to Grace Crowley, 1930–1951. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 1 86508 241 4. 1. Crowley, Grace, 1890–1979—Correspondence. 2. Dangar, Anne, d. 1951—Correspondence. 3. Women artists— Australia—Correspondence. 4. Women potters—France— Sablons—Biography. I. Topliss, Helen, 1946– . II. Crowley, Grace, 1890–1979. III. Title. 738.092 Set in 10.5/14 pt Granjon and 10.5/14 pt Cochin by Bookhouse, Sydney Printed by South Wind Productions, Singapore 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page v Contents Preface vii Map x Introduction 1 1 Sydney to Sablons, 1930–1931 33 2 Movement Towards the Centre, 1932–1933 63 3 Toujours les Choses Tournent, 1934–1938 114 4 Arabian Night Stories, 1939 167 5 Tormented Movements in Translation, 1940–1945 211 6 La Poterie Moly-Sabata, 1946–1949 251 7 ‘Life on Earth is a Passing Through Time’, 1949–1951 300 Epilogue 327 Personae 331 Glossary 344 Illustrations and Plates 351 Bibliography 353 Index 356 Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page vi This page intentionally left blank Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page vii Preface This book represents a complete account of Anne Dangar’s life in France from 1930–51. In editing the letters I have followed Dom Angelico Surchamp’s example in his edition of Anne Dangar’s corre- spondence by standardising syntax, leaving out repetitive passages and making some corrections to spelling. However, I have retained Anne Dangar’s idiosyncratic mode of expression and her penchant for excla- mation marks. Wherever possible I have identified people that she writes about and events that took place. There are also a number of gaps in the correspondence through lost pages, the illegibility of letters written on both sides of very fine paper and the occasional censorship of pass- ages by Grace Crowley, the recipient of the letters. Grace Crowley also carried out some editorial work by providing summaries of many of the letters, writing comments directly on the text, and underlining passages. The letters are copiously illustrated with images of pottery or other objects that Dangar was describing to Grace Crowley, as well as many diagrams illustrating Gleizes’ theories. During the preparation of the manuscript I received a great deal of help from people in France. I would like to thank Monsieur Philippe Prache and Monsieur Petri at the Fondation Albert Gleizes in Paris for allowing me to stay at Moly-Sabata, Sablons, and Dom Angelico Surchamp for sharing his memories of Anne Dangar with me and being a generous and congenial host at the Abbaye de la Pierre-Qui-Vire, Saint-Léger Vauban where I stayed for three days. I interviewed a number of people who had known Anne Dangar when they were Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page viii viii Earth, Fire, Water, Air children and my thanks go to the following: M. Louis Pegeron, Mme Astier, Mme Gilka Geoffray-Beclu, Mme Geneviève Dalban, Mme Martin Grimaud, M. and Mme Coste, M. Delhomme, Mme Dalicieux, Mme Gamandon and Mme Buard. I would also like to thank Jean-Jaques Dubernard, who took over M. Paquaud’s pottery (where Anne Dangar worked for many years), for sharing information with me; the mayor of Sablons, M. Andrieux and his wife who were both so encouraging about my research; M. Claude Maillard, the artist-caretaker of Moly, who spoke to me about Albert Gleizes and his wife Juliette (née Roche); Mr Richard Brooke for showing me his manuscript on Albert Gleizes; M. and Mme Maurice Grimaud who talked to me about Dangar’s close friendship with their family; M. Jean Chevalier who offered information about Gleizes and Dangar in the 1940s; and M. Henri Giriat at the Fondation Albert Gleizes who reminisced about his time at les Méjades with Albert Gleizes and Anne Dangar. I also owe a great deal to Richard Rousseau, a resident potter working in Anne Dangar’s old pottery at Moly-Sabata, who was enthusiastic about my research from a potter’s point of view. It was Richard who first suggested that I could stay at Moly and introduced me to a number of people in the region. Without his generous help I would not have been able to achieve all that I did within such a short space of time. In addition I would like to thank my aunt Mme Héla Leneman for her hospitality in Paris. I also owe thanks to the Australian Research Council, which awarded me a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship for three years to carry out research on women artists and early modernism, and the Humanities Research Centre at ANU, which afforded me the necessary support to enable the completion of this work. I have a special debt to M. Laurent de Gaulle of the French Embassy in Canberra, who secured a grant for me to travel to central France so that I could conduct the last leg of the research, and his colleague at the embassy M. Alain Monteil who made possible a second trip to France to photograph Anne Dangar’s work for this book. And to Mr Franco Belgiorno-Nettis of Transfield who was most enthusiastic about my research and generously assisted my work in France. Many thanks to Jim Koutsouris for his generosity and sup- port for my project. I am very grateful to Hilary McPhee for suggesting that I take this difficult manuscript to Sophie Cunningham at Allen & Unwin, where from the outset Hilary’s advice was confirmed by Sophie’s encourage- Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page ix Preface ix ment and optimism about this book. This book would never have seen completion without the help, expertise and unfailing good humour of its editor Jane Yule, who kept me at the task through all its permu- tations. As always I owe a particular debt to my daughters Julia and Maggie who have been encouraging, understanding, helpful and deter- mined that I should complete this book; in particular Julia, who followed my passion for Anne Dangar’s pottery all the way to France and took the photographs for the book. Helen Topliss Melbourne 2000 Bh0335P00-PressProofs.QXD 31/5/02 11:44 AM Page x PARIS LYON FRANCE LYON St Etienne Vienne BORDEAUX ne MVaolnetnécliemar ô h R TOULOUSE MARSEILLE Vienne St Etienne Roussillon Sablons St Rambert Annonay Thorrenc St Vallier Tain Romans Valence Cliousclat Kilometres Mirmande 0 10