This collection of new essays explores the role played by women practitioners in the arts during the period often referred to as the Belle Epoque, a turn of the century period in which the modern media (audio and film recording, broadcasting, etc.) began to become a reality. Exploring the careers and creative lives of both the famous (Sarah Bernhardt) and the less so (Pauline Townsend) across a remarkable range of artistic activity from composition through oratory to fine art and film directing, these essays attempt to reveal, in some cases for the first time, women’s true impact on the arts at the turn of the 19th century.

Paul Fryer is an academic, author, editor and researcher, based in Kent (UK). He has lectured and presented film screenings internationally and is a visiting professor at the Universities of Leeds, London South Bank and East London.

Edited by Paul Fryer
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 237
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6075-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0102-1
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction: But Where Were the Women?      1

PAUL FRYER

Sarah Bernhardt: Artist and Mythologist      12

DEBRA CHARLTON

Pauline Sherwood Townsend: American Proponent of Expression and Pageantry      28

NENA COUCH

Lillie Langtry: From “Professional Beauty” to International Icon      48

REBECCA A. UMLAND

Fashioning Herself a Lady: Anna Cora Mowatt’s “Bold Experiment”      61

ADRIENNE MACKI BRACONI

Ida Rubinstein, Fixer Fatale      79

EDWARD FORMAN

Loïe Fuller’s “Orgy of Color”: Modernity, Eternity and the Folies-Bergère      97

SEBASTIAN TRAINOR

Sculpture in Motion: Nina Simonovich-Efimova and the Petrushka Theatre      118

DASSIA N. POSNER

Keeping the House: Augusta Gregory and the National Theatre of Ireland      136

BERNADETTE SWEENEY

Caldwell, Donnelly and Young: Women Writing in the American Musical Theatre      150

ELLEN MARIE PECK

Armande de Polignac: An Aristocratic Compositrice in Fin-de-siècle Paris      165

LAURA HAMER

The Most Artistic Lady Artist on Earth: Vesta Victoria      186

CAROL A. MORLEY

The Graphic Power of Käthe Kollwitz      210

RINA ARYA

About the Contributors      225

Index      227