Carrying the Torch: Maud Howe Elliott and the American Renaissance

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73 si x The greatest art the world has ever known is the Greek. The greatest period of Greek art was in the time of Pericles . . . Under the reign of Pericles peace was restored to Athens . . . Mankind reached its greatest intellectual development.The race was in its prime, steeled to any task by its hardy, vigorous youth, strong in body and mind. Out of the glorious peace rose up those monuments of art before which we kneel today. Maud Howe Elliott The citizens of Chicago were elated when it was announced in 1889 that the World’s Columbian Exposition would be held there.The city had bounced back after a disastrous fire in 1871 and now it would be the site of this extravaganza of nationalist pride, a chance to show the world just how advanced was the civilization of the United States. Director General George Davis spoke: “The ceaseless, resistless march of civilization westward—ever westward—has reached and passed the Great Lakes of North America ...what we are and what we possess as a nation is not ours by purchase, not by conquest, but by virtue of the rich heritage that was spread out beneath the sun and stars . . . by the gift of the Infinite.”1 The chief of construction for the Exposition was Daniel H. Burnham.He was to project the ideal city,a harmony of beauty,classicism and order. Fittingly, the bevy of neoclassical palaces came to be called The White City. The Exposition became controversial for The Midway, the carnival-like display of people of different ethnicities—treated as 74 Carrying the Torch savages or exotics—from around the world. But the fair also brought together women in a slightly less controversial contingency,one in which Maud was to play a role. Setting the stage for Maud’s accomplishments in Chicago was the commission that her husband had received from Bertha Honoré Palmer, the wife of successful dry goods merchant Potter Palmer. She had hired the firm of Herter Brothers, fresh from their decoration of William H. Vanderbilt’s home in New York City, to oversee the décor of her mansion being built on Chicago’s newly developed Lake Shore Drive.Herter Brothers, under Christian Herter, had been known for their furniture and fine craftsmanship, but by the 1880s they were also commissioning painters and paintings; how they became aware of Jack Elliott is not clear, but it was likely through a Howe/Ward connection in Newport or New York.In November 1886 Jack received a letter from Herter Brothers commending him for his dining room ceiling design The Vintage, and letting him know how pleased Mrs.Potter was with the work.It was at a dinner party at the Palmers that guest William Pretyman,an adventurous English artist and decorator,saw and admired the dining room mural.He chatted about it with his dinner partner, Jean (Mrs. John B.) Sherwood, a women’s activist who put him in touch with the Howes,and Pretyman invited Jack to come work for him in Chicago. Although Jack had been pursuing his art in Rome, the heart of the Christian world, the influences in his decorative work were decidedly pagan. Maud attributed his festive theme of the Dionysian rites to his recent participation in the art festivals at Cevara, an enchanted town of grottoes on the Roman Campagna, to which the artists paraded while clad in togas, playing pipes (Jack played a mandolin), and presumably drinking wine.The mural involved laughing cupids gathering the grapes and making the wine. Pretyman had arrived in Chicago in 1887 with his beautiful American wife, Jenny, and daughter, and he invited Maud and Jack to live with them in their new residence.They soon retreated to the suburb of Lake Forest,a bit cooler in the summer than Chicago but thirty miles removed. Jack now had to commute to a Chicago office building where Pretyman had outfitted a studio.After doing some religious drawings for a prospective church project, Jack began work on The Progress of Love, a series of decorative panels for the Perry Smith house, as well Chapter Six 75 as “several other canvases, executed under the lash of Pretyman’s strong will and finished little to Jack’s satisfaction.” Pretyman apparently ran a tight ship, and it was not to Jack’s liking, or as Maud put it, “Jack was a sensitive artist with more...