Isabel Dutaud Nagle Lachaise (1872–1957) was an American-born, amateur

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, and wife of sculptor

Gaston Lachaise Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in America in the early 20th century. A native of Paris, he is most noted for his robust female nudes such as his heroic '' Standing Woman''. Gaston Lachaise ...

active in the early 20th century. Isabel Lachaise was his muse, model, and the primary inspiration for most of his sculptures and drawings.

Early life and education

One of four children, Isabel Dutaud Nagle Lachaise was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 8, 1872, to French-Canadian parents, Joseph Duteau (also Dutaud), born in 1828 in Napierville, Quebec, Canada, and Aurelie Gendron, born in 1831 in Saint-Valentin, Quebec, Canada. The couple were married in 1849 in Saint-Valentin. Isabel's older sister Adele was born in 1855 in Saint-Alexandre, Quebec. In 1860, the family moved to the United States, settling in Danvers, Massachusetts, Joseph working as a brickmaker. Isabel's parents died a few months apart from each other in 1907. Isabel and Adele were schooled in Paris. At the age of 20, Isabel married George B. Nagel (also Nagle), the older brother of her friend Elizabeth (“Daisy”) Nagel, at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Revere, Massachusetts, and resided in Danvers. George was employed as a traveling salesman for an optical goods company. They had one son, Edward Nagle (1893–1963), and were divorced in 1916.

Later life and second marriage

In about 1902 or 1903 while in Paris overseeing Edward's education there, Isabel met the love of her life, a French art student,

(1882–1935). After she returned home, Lachaise followed her to Boston in 1906. He pursued his art career, saw her frequently, and became a naturalized American citizen in 1917. Isabel obtained a divorce and the two were married in 1917, their wedding supper thrown by aul Manship.Isabel and Lachaise principally resided in New York City, regularly summering in Maine where Isabel had gone since she was young. Under the pseudonym Isabel Cyr, (after her paternal grandmother), Isabel published a poem entitled "Invective" in ''The International: A Review of Two Worlds'' in October 1913. Under the same pseudonym, Isabel exhibited two drawings in the

Society of Independent Artists Society of Independent Artists was an association of American artists founded in 1916 and based in New York. Background Based on the French Société des Artistes Indépendants, the goal of the society was to hold annual exhibitions by avant-gard ...

exhibition of 1917. In 1922, five years after their marriage, Isabel and Lachaise purchased a summer home of their own in

Georgetown, Maine Georgetown is a town in Sagadahoc County, Maine, United States. The population was 1,058 at the 2020 census. Home to Reid State Park, the town is part of the Portland-South Portland-Biddeford metropolitan area. Located on an island accessible by ...

. There, as well as in New York, Isabel, known as "Madame Lachaise," hosted "literary evenings," attended by friends and artists, including ebecca and Paul Strand

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was bor ...

and Robert Laurent. Both Isabel and Lachaise were dance enthusiasts, appreciating the work of artists

Ruth St Denis Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevi ...

—he created several bronze statuettes (now lost, although two plaster models still exist) of her performing several of her famous roles—and

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Bor ...

, and later

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova. (born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova; – 23 January 1931) was a Russian prima ballerina. She was a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, but is most recognized for creating ...

and

Uday Shankar Uday Shankar (born Uday Shankar Choudhary; 8 December 1900 – 26 September 1977) was an Indian dancer and choreographer, best known for creating a fusion style of dance, adapting European theatrical techniques to Indian classical dance, imbu ...

. In the early 1910s, Lachaise took a series of photographs of Isabel dancing nude in the woods and lying among the rocks along the Maine coast, and he made a couple of stunning gilded bronze casts of a fanciful dancing figure representing her performing a "Hindu dance." Many of Lachaise’s sculptures of women represent variations on an ideal inspired by Isabel, yet, according to him, only a few actually represent her. An example of the latter is his unembellished ''Portrait of My Wife'' featured in his show at the Brummer Gallery, New York, in 1928. After Lachaise's sudden death in October 1935, Isabel spent much of the rest of her life promoting and selling his art and attending to her son, who had become mentally unstable. She died September 16, 1957, and was cremated, as had been her husband Lachaise, whose ashes she kept in an urn.

Foundation

In 1963, according to Isabel's will, Isabel's great nephew John B. Pierce, Jr. (1925–2006) established the Lachaise Foundation whose mission is to protect, promote and perpetuate the artistic legacy of Gaston Lachaise for the public benefit.

References

Sources

* * *Budny, Virginia, "Gaston Lachaise's American Venus: The Genesis and Evolution of ''Elevation''," ''The American Art Journal'', vols. 34-35 (2003–2004), pp. 62–143. JSTOR 351057 *Budny, Virginia. "Provocative Extremes: Gaston Lachaise's Women." ''Sculpture Review'', vol. 3, no. 2 (n.s. 14, no. 2), Summer 2014, pp. 8-19. https://www.academia.edu/51362553/Provocative_Extremes_Gaston_Lachaises_Women. Retrieved 2024-05-02.

External links

The Lachaise Foundation official website
* * Gaston Lachaise Collection. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lachaise, Isabel Dutaud Nagle American women poets 1872 births 1957 deaths Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts Female models from Maine Dancers from Massachusetts American expatriates in France