Ars: časopis Ústavu Dejín Umenia Slovenskej Akadémie Vied (45.2012)

10. James Carroll Beckwith: Portrait of William Walton, 1886, oil
on canvas, 121 X 73 cm. New York, The Century Association. Photo:
Archive of the association.


11. Napoleon Sarony: Portrait of Winslow Homer, ca. 1880, albumen
print. Brunswick (ME), Boivdoin College Museum of Art. Photo:
Archive of the museum.

ment, or in the most extreme cases, to the way certain
artists were seen to dress as the part, talk and act as
artists but were seen to be devoid of any real talent.
In this sense, the représentation of bohemianism in
the printed press became a way of mocking those
whose only talent was to appear as artists. Because
the Parisian avant-garde was often associated to for-
malism and the art for art’s sake movement, which
had great difficulties being integrated in the United
States, the choice of clothes also became a way of
affirming ones aesthetic position, which once again
led to great parodies in the printed press.29
Once these stereotypes were deeply rooted inside
the collective mind through magazines newspapers
and novels, it was then possible to attack all deviant
behavior as a resuit of the corruption of bohe-
mianism. One scandai called the “Pie Girl Affair”
especially targeted the artist bohemian community
of New York. The incident happened during an
exclusively male party organized by the Wall Street
broker Henry W. Poor in honor of a friend’s tenth
wedding anniversary. It took place in the studio of
artist James L. Breese. The other guests were paint-
ers, architects and members of the financial dite.

29 SMITH 2011 (see in note 13), pp. 265-275.

The climax of the party was a pretty young model in
black gauze rising from the inside of a gigantic pie.
This dinner was characteristic of life among certain
urban dites and was composed of a “society of male
friends, mostly in the arts... with agood deal of secrecyfor an
elaboráte, heavy dinner, some serions drinking, and sexually
titillating entertainment ’.30
The party came under the public’s scrutiny when
the young girl, named Susie Johnson, disappeared
and the police started to investigate. As the word
“secrecy” suggests, certain people viewed the arts as
a cloak of good taste where wealthy individuals could
hide their vice and depravity. The party was called
“the three thousand five hundred dollar dinner*’. Risqué
motifs adorned the place cards and menus. In addi-
tion to Susie Johnson in the pie, two other models
served wine to the men, a blond for the white wine,
a brünette for the red. A news article published in
The World stated that “somewhere in the big studio build-
ings of New York’s Bohemia thegirl is hidden. Perhaps the
article will bring Susie Johnson home to her parents and put
a stop to the bacchanalian revels in New York, ’s fashionable
studios. These amusements... are beyond the reach of police
or municipal reformers. [.. f The contamination... works
30 BURNS 1996 (see in note 18), p. 87.

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