Why Ethel Mars (1876-1953) left a successful career as a book illustrator in New York City to move to France, circa 1905, is not entirely clear. But in Paris, she frequented the salon of another recent American arrival, Gertrude Stein and met many of the budding artists whose works Stein and her companion Alice B. Toklas had begun to collect. 
Among the artists that Mars met it was the Nabis, Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, whose work struck a sympathetic chord, noticeable in the multiple patterns and pronounced verticals that are artfully blended in these intimate scenes.Known herself as an avant-garde woman in matters of 
personal style, Mars often dyed her hair purple or orange (redheads being quite the rage in pre-World War I Paris) as the mood struck her. We can intuit her attention to style from the manner she used to compose her portrait-style prints of individuals (the sitting man with the pipe, the redhead in the off-shoulder dress and the woman with the fan).
Eventually, Mars and her companion Maud Hunt Squire moved to Vence, a medieval town in southern France, and Mars turned from print-making to painting. But that is another story.
personal style, Mars often dyed her hair purple or orange (redheads being quite the rage in pre-World War I Paris) as the mood struck her. We can intuit her attention to style from the manner she used to compose her portrait-style prints of individuals (the sitting man with the pipe, the redhead in the off-shoulder dress and the woman with the fan).
Image credit:Tres Complementaires: The Art and Lives of Ethel Mars and Maud Hunt Squire by Catherine Ryan, Mary Ryan Gallery: 2000.
6 comments:
The woman at the piano is excellent. I like the dress pattern and the way she is reading the music ... or a letter the postman brought???
Jeanne, it's also interesting to speculate whether these women are redheads or whether Mars played on their popularity to dye her own hair orange- a premature punk, perhaps
HAH! I noticed the Bonnard/Vuillard similarity right away.
I love the fact that she dyed her hair. Maybe she's another Red-haired muse.
Thanks for introducing me.
Evidently, Mars dyed her hair a nuumber of different colors at different times. Victoria Mackenzie-Childs, the ceramics designer, sometimes wears a rainbow of colors in her hair to mimic the bright pastels she uses in her work.
Both your text and images provide wonderful resources for me as I am working on an audio recording of G.STein's Miss Furr and Miss Skeene. In that piece, Helen Furr (Ethel Mars) seems to be the woman who has to work harder at being gay and in "cultivating her voice." Dying her hair outrageous colors fits right in.
Thank you.
WS
Anon, thanks for the kind words. Please let me know when the recording is available.
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