In 1923 when American writer Willa Cather was fifty, the Omaha Society of Fine Arts from her home state of Nebraska put together $1000 to commission a portrait for the Omaha Public Library. By then, she was already famous, with many critically acclaimed novels to her credit, several honorary degrees, and a recent Pulitzer Prize.
Cather was in France at the time and picked the Russian artist Leon Bakst as her painter. Best known as a costume designer for the avant-garde Ballet Russes, Bakst was an unusual choice for a painting that was to hang in heartland of America.
Initially Bakst chose a green dress of Cather’s that looked like a Russian tunic. Somewhere along the way, someone changed the outfit to this wraparound style. The color changed as well. According to observers, the dress is a champagne color with a pink sash, although that is hard to see in this reproduction. She wears no jewelry at all—in fact, the book is her only accessory.
In this portrait, Cather’s looks very much like she does in photographs taken at the time. Even so, Cather was not pleased with the final product. The citizens of Omaha were outraged, calling it mediocre, valueless, crude, and a poor likeness. Some even threatened to withhold payment. To this, Cather responded that Bakst had worked hard and in good faith. But she confessed to the head of the group that had commissioned the portrait that she would never again pose for a portrait she could not destroy if she didn’t like it.
Looking at reproductions of this portrait today, it is hard to see what caused so much controversy. Was it perhaps because Cather looks so ordinary in the painting, not at all like a woman who had achieved the pinnacles of fame?
I like the portrait, maybe if I could compare it with other portraits of Great Authors at the time I’d understand why Cather disliked it.
Any more information about how she selected Bakst? Did the folks in Omaha figure out that there’d been some major changes in Russia by 1923?