Husband
Wilfrid de
Glehn
Queer Places:
The Art Students League of New York, 215 W 57th St, New York, NY 10019
73 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London SW3 5TT, UK
Old Rectory, North St, Wilton, Salisbury SP2 0HQ, UK
Manor House, Stratford Tony, Salisbury SP5 4AT, UK
Jane
Erin Emmet de Glehn (born Jane Erin Emmet in 1873; died 20 February 1961)[1] was
an American figure and portrait painter. Robert von Glehn’s grandson (and
therefore Louise Creighton's
nephew),
Wilfrid de
Glehn and his wife Jane Erin Emmet were subjects of a painting by
John Singer Sargent at the fountain
at Villa Torlonia, Italy. Both artists, she was a cousin of the novelist
Henry James. Wilfrid de Glehn was a friend of
William Bruce Ellis
Ranken. Jane Emmet de Glehn and mezzo-soprano
Susan Metcalfe knew each
other since their shared childhood in New Rochelle.
Born in New
Rochelle, New York, Jane Erin Emmet was the youngest daughter of ten siblings.[2] Her
great-great-uncle Robert
Emmet was a notable Irish nationalist who was hanged in 1803 for high
treason by the British court for his attempt to implement an Irish rebellion.
Lydia Field Emmet's great-grandfather Thomas
Addis Emmet, Robert's older brother, emigrated to the United States after
Robert's execution. Thomas Addis Emmet would later become the New
York State Attorney General. His daughter Elizabeth Emmet (born 1794), Jane's
great-aunt, would study portraiture under the direction of a steamboat
designer and portrait artist named Thomas Fulton.[3]
Both her older sisters Rosina
Emmet Sherwood (1854–1948) and Lydia
Field Emmet (1866–1952) would also become successful artists, as well as
their first cousin Ellen
Emmet "Bay" Rand (1876–1941).[4] Emmet
de Glehn's brother, William
LeRoy Emmet, was an accomplished engineer employed by General
Electric;[5] a
graduate of the United
States Naval Academy at Annapolis,
he was a pioneer in the areas of current electricity and power generation,
best known for his work with steam turbines, mercury vapor, and electric ship
propulsion.[5][6][7] Her
brother Robert
Temple Emmet was a West
Point graduate, and Medal
of Honor recipient.[8] Her
brother Devereux Emmet was
a pioneering American golf
course architect who, according to one source, designed more than 150
courses worldwide. Her brother Christopher
Temple Emmet was an noted attorney and sportsman.[9] She
is the aunt of the prominent American playwright Robert
Emmet Sherwood.
The Fountain, Villa Torlonia, Frascati, Italy, 1907, by
John Singer Sargent
In a Garden, Corfu, 1909 (Jane Emmet de Glehn) by
John Singer Sargent
Jane Emmett by Wilfrid de Glehn
Jane Emmet's career began while studying at the New
York's Art Students League and she later studied under Frederick
William MacMonnies in Paris.[10] She
then travelled in Europe to view the work of the Grand Masters and continue
her studies.
Jane Emmet’s acquaintance with
Robert Allerton and John Borie
was first made in Paris in 1897, and it grew more intimate after all of them
had returned to the USA. Later, when Dickie Borie moved from Philadelphia to
New York City in 1902, there was no shortage of occasions for that pair to
extend their friendship.
In January 1903, Wilfrid de Glehn went to the United States to help with the
installation of the celebrated murals (monumental in scale), executed by Edwin
Austin Abbey and John Singer Sargent for the Boston Public Library. Beside
helping with the work in Boston, de Glehn also was eager to secure recognition
(and future commissions) for himself in the United States, and with Sargent's
help, he was given his chance: the prestigious Durand-Ruel gallery in
Manhattan invited the British painter to exhibit his work that same spring.
While the two men were in New York, consulting with the library's architects,
they paid their respects at Bay
Emmet's studio, where de Glehn was introduced to her cousin Jane. After
Sargent returned to Europe in June, Bay invited de Glehn to stay on and spend
the summer at her farm in Connecticut, where he could paint at his leisure;
and during that time his acquaintance with Jane Erin Emmet depened into a
romantic engagement, which they announced in September. The couple were
married in New Rochelle in May 1904. The marriage took everyone by surprise.
All branches of the Emmets "were stunned by the engagement, believing that the
30 years old Jane would remain single, as Lydia had." Sargent was equally
nonplussed. "My God! What a trick to play to your sincere well wisher. I will
up and marry in the attempt to be quits."
Following their
marriage, the couple honeymooned in Cornwall, England, vacationed in Paris and
Venice, and made a permanent home in Chelsea,
London.[10]
In England, Jane continued to draw and paint, exhibiting her work at the New
English Art Club, the Royal
Academy and the Royal
Hibernian Academy. She worked mainly in the mediums of chalk and charcoal.
The young couple became frequent travelling companions of the American
painter John
Singer Sargent, whom Jane Emmet de Glehn had met at performance of the
dancer Carmencita in
1890,[11] and
between 1905 and 1914 the trio often depicted each other in their works whilst
travelling throughout Europe.[12]
When World War I broke out, both Jane and Wilfrid joined the staff of a
British hospital for French soldiers, Hôpital
Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois, Haute-Marne, France in January 1915. On their
return to England the following year, Wifrid was commissioned and seconded to
the Front in Italy in 1917. After the war they returned to England, and
Wilfrid held a solo exhibition at the Leicester
Galleries and another solo show in New York in 1920. For the next decade
the two would spend summers in Cornwall and
winters in France.
Unlike her sisters, or her cousin Ellen
Emmet Rand, or her husband, Jane Emmet de Glehn was not a prolific artist;
after 1913 she generally exhibited her work alongside of that of her husband.[13] During
the 1930s and 1940s Jane had a studio in New York. In 1940 she shared an
exhibition with her sister Lydia Field Emmet, and like her sisters and cousin,
preferred to mostly work in portraiture. After her husband's death in 1951,
Jane Emmet de Glehn spent much of her time casually sketching her extended
family and members of her social circle. She and Wilfrid had no children and
she died in 1961.
In late April 2007, Arden
Galleries in Manhattan held a family exhibit of five generations of the
Emmet women's paintings. The 130 exhibits by 14 artists began with nine
portraits by Jane Emmet de Glehn's great-aunt Elizabeth Emmet (a.k.a.
Elizabeth Emmet LeRoy) and ended with nine sculptures by
great-great-grandniece Julia Townsend, aged 22, and with two by Beulah Emmet,
aged 18.[3]
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