FANDOM NAME: Charlotte Cushman and the White Marmorean Flock RPF
WAIT, "MARMOREAN"? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?: It means "resembling marble," and "the white marmorean flock" was Henry James's (not very complimentary) nickname for a group of female expatriate sculptors living in Rome in the mid-ninteenth century.
SO WHO'S CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, THEN?: Not a sculptor. Charlotte Cushman was a world-famous actress who was the social center for that group of liberated women. And by "social center" I mean "a lot of them lived with her and/or slept with her."
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Let me start by introducing you to Charlotte Cushman (all links go to Wikipedia pages unless otherwise stated), born 1816. Her father died while she was in her early teens, and she became the primary financial support for her family. She tried opera, transitioned to theater at age 18, and struck gold with a debut role as Lady Macbeth. What she was most known for, though, was playing male roles ranging from Romeo (her younger sister starred opposite her as Juliet) to Hamlet. She was quite possibly the most well-known actress of her day.
She also had romantic relationships exclusively with women--relationships which were quite public, often overlapped, and tended toward the dramatic. (One of her partners, writer Matilda Hays, ended up essentially suing Cushman for alimony after a complicated love quadrangle involving sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Emma Stebbins. They settled out of court.)
The drama is fun, but what fascinates me most about Cushman and her social circle is that they were a social circle: that is, that they existed in a female-focused community and supported each other at their art. One of the people Cushman supported (and one of the four people I nominated) was Edmonia Lewis, who may or may not have been romantically into woman (if she was, she was a lot more discreet about it than anyone else in Cushman's circle) but was one of the very first women of color to achieve a reputation as a sculptor in the classical Western tradition.
TL;DR: Are you interested in women making art, living their best lives, saying fuck you to convention, and writing passionate romantic letters to each other? Then you might be interested in reading more about these women--and, maybe, writing me something about them.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The Wikipedia articles above have lots of source links, but Cushman's memoir (edited and published by Emma Stebbins, link goes to free Archive.org version) is also a good place to start. There's also a couple biographical works that I haven't read: Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome and When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators. And I've found some academic articles with information of interest, including "The White, Marmorean Flock" (The New England Quarterly, 1959) and "Networking in Italy" (Women's Studies, 1988).
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FANDOM NAME: Charlotte Cushman and the White Marmorean Flock RPF
WAIT, "MARMOREAN"? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?: It means "resembling marble," and "the white marmorean flock" was Henry James's (not very complimentary) nickname for a group of female expatriate sculptors living in Rome in the mid-ninteenth century.
SO WHO'S CHARLOTTE CUSHMAN, THEN?: Not a sculptor. Charlotte Cushman was a world-famous actress who was the social center for that group of liberated women. And by "social center" I mean "a lot of them lived with her and/or slept with her."
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Let me start by introducing you to Charlotte Cushman (all links go to Wikipedia pages unless otherwise stated), born 1816. Her father died while she was in her early teens, and she became the primary financial support for her family. She tried opera, transitioned to theater at age 18, and struck gold with a debut role as Lady Macbeth. What she was most known for, though, was playing male roles ranging from Romeo (her younger sister starred opposite her as Juliet) to Hamlet. She was quite possibly the most well-known actress of her day.
She also had romantic relationships exclusively with women--relationships which were quite public, often overlapped, and tended toward the dramatic. (One of her partners, writer Matilda Hays, ended up essentially suing Cushman for alimony after a complicated love quadrangle involving sculptors Harriet Hosmer and Emma Stebbins. They settled out of court.)
The drama is fun, but what fascinates me most about Cushman and her social circle is that they were a social circle: that is, that they existed in a female-focused community and supported each other at their art. One of the people Cushman supported (and one of the four people I nominated) was Edmonia Lewis, who may or may not have been romantically into woman (if she was, she was a lot more discreet about it than anyone else in Cushman's circle) but was one of the very first women of color to achieve a reputation as a sculptor in the classical Western tradition.
TL;DR: Are you interested in women making art, living their best lives, saying fuck you to convention, and writing passionate romantic letters to each other? Then you might be interested in reading more about these women--and, maybe, writing me something about them.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: The Wikipedia articles above have lots of source links, but Cushman's memoir (edited and published by Emma Stebbins, link goes to free Archive.org version) is also a good place to start. There's also a couple biographical works that I haven't read: Sisterhood of Sculptors: American Artists in Nineteenth-Century Rome and When Romeo Was a Woman: Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female Spectators. And I've found some academic articles with information of interest, including "The White, Marmorean Flock" (The New England Quarterly, 1959) and "Networking in Italy" (Women's Studies, 1988).