Bertha Ballou – Page 2 – BERTHA BALLOU LETTERS

I believe I will make a portrait painter yet

To both parents from Bertha – March, 1913 (Approx.)

Dear Mamma and Papa,

I have a fate pursuing me into all sorts of queer experiences. Tonight I have been at the first reading of a play under the instruction of a professional actor and with three or four professionals in a cast of eight. I am a young man in a morality play to be given for the benefit of the club on April 17th and we expect to have a neat theater. I feel very odd indeed and hardly know how I will speak even my few lines but as the honor was thrust upon me, I will do my best and be thoughtful that the part is short. It is interesting to work with the others who are doing the big parts because they are real actresses though still studying. I am now practicing laughing. This is difficult to me inexperienced but Mr. Nath assures me it is perfectly simple.

I spoke to Mr. Drummond this morning about summer school. He will probably teach at _____, about two hours from here, but is engaged in some big mural decorations and so busy he can’t be sure whether he has time and teach. There is always a summer school at Woodstock. I have about made up my mind that I might go to summer school for a month or two anyway to get a little start at landscape. I have seen some of the work of students after a summer course that was very good, students who had only studied last year at the League and then gone to summer school with a year less preparation than I have now so I believe there is a lot to be had from it. Also two months at this end of the year when I am right in the work is worth four at the beginning after a vacation. I believe it would be a great help to me in working alone on landscape as I will have to do a good deal, from lack of models, if I could have a little start to get me through the most discouraging part of learning to paint with an _______ palette.
As you have suggested my staying another year if I thought best, I take it almost for granted that you will not object to my putting in a little while longer right now and then coming to you a few months later at the most. I am going to plan to stay a month at summer school anyway and make my arrangements accordingly, since I can’t hear from you immediately. I will receive an answer to this probably about the end of May which if I am not here will be immediately forwarded by Miss Newman to _____ or Woodstock and if you don’t want me to stay, will still have time to catch the July transport if you think best. I wish when you write you would tell me exactly what you think and when you want me to come. I don’t like to be long way from you and in a way, I had to put off my departure even a month because I hate delays and like to do things when I have said I would and of course I want to go home but on the other hand as far as I can see, from my present artwork, it seems a very little matter to add two or three months at the outside to my years’ work and I can see how much of a start I might to get in that time.

I will inquire into the matter of expense but do not believe it will be more expensive than here through I will have some tuition to pay and of course they always stick artist _____ in the matter of board even in the Coventry. I supposed board will be six or seven dollars a week but hope to take Evelyn Hope as a romantic so it might be less. Traveling expenses to and from will be slight as Mr. Drummond makes the trip in twice a week during the spring and fall to give criticisms. It is evidently a very short distance.

Work is going about as usual. I had a pretty good portrait this week and had another D. It was also a fair likeness. Next week, I intend to have another D, if possible, and a better portrait. Drawing is so easy for me that I get likeness much more readily than most in the class even of the advanced students. It is a great satisfaction to me and I believe I will make a portrait painter yet. It is a think I can gain a great deal in by myself I believe, though of course it goes slowly. I am gradually growing used to working in paint and I think after a while I would learn to forget about the ways and means and then I would do better character work. Now I have adopted a plan which seems small in a way but is giving me confidence. I chose a position in the room that interested me with a given model and made a much better portrait than usual, managing to grasp the big features of shadow masses for the first time. The next week the model was posed in much the same place and the same general masses held good. I chose almost identically the same place and did very much better as I understood the lighting pretty well. This week I tried it again. Next week if possible, I will use the same position and then if I feel thoroughly able to cope with the situation there, I will move with a great deal more confidence to a new spot and go at the problem from a new point of view. In the meantime, I have gained a great deal more confidence so I believe my idea has been worthwhile. I expect a letter from you tomorrow so I will write more later.

Your letter was quite shorthand so there is not much to answer. I hope you got the letter you were expecting from me. My roommates say I don’t do anything else but write home but I realized that that was hardly exact. I went last night to hear Faust a second time. It was Saturday night and standing room is only a dollar. I thought Faust was worth a dollar so I went again. Favrar and Gilly sang. Favrar was not as good as Destin whom I heard before but her acting was better as she looks the part. I like Faust better than any other opera I have heard. It is perfectly wonderful. Now I must close as my hair is wet and drippy and this has to go in the morning.

Love from Bertha

P.S. I guess I only want to stay a month longer.

I’m wondering how large a town Batangas is

To Cora Hendricks from Bertha – March 20, 1913

[Note: Bertha’s father C.C. Ballou is stationed in Batangas, Philippines]

Mrs. C. C. Ballou
Camp McGarth
Batangas,
Philippine Islands

Dear Mamma:

I received a money order for thirty-four dollars and fifty cents from Mr. Green yesterday and as it was a very bright sunny day – our first real Spring Day, I set out forthright with Evelyn Hope who also had some money sent her by her mother for a present. We went to McCutchen’s and bought a most lovely and beautiful tablecloth for Reba. I must confess that I went over your limit because it was so much nicer and paid $17.50 but I also went and bought me what I wanted – a card case at $12.50 so it averages up to the amount I had permission to spend – and it was a most beautiful tablecloth to my way of thinking – plain linen in the middle and a lovely pattern around the outside – with scrolls and a conventional design of roses. I had it sent right on from the store so I saved postage and registering which also helps to reconcile my conscience. My present is very pretty indeed. It is a good sized silver card case with a plain but substantial chain. The sides are pretty with a conventional design and two round places, on on each side the monogram. Inside there is a place for money and a place for cards – also a small mirror. Altogether it is very satisfactory and I’m waiting impatiently to get it back from the markers.

Evelyn Hope got a lovely Rembrandt print. I decided that something less bulky would be better for me at the present time. I wrote you I was thinking of staying longer here. I’m half regretting my decision now so I guess I won’t stay long. I guess a month will be long enough.

Yesterday, I decided to go down to interview the doctor about a bit of rheumatism and Sally [Note: Her sister] went with me. As I said before, it was a perfectly glorious day and this was right after breakfast so we put on our suits and took the subway down to Bowling Green and found our way without the slightest difficulty to the Army Building – found an accommodating elevator man and went up to the Doctor’s. He wasn’t there but the steward told me we could have any medicine we wanted. We didn’t want any just then so we left.

Outside, it looked so nice that, not having anything else pressing, we decided to look around. First we started up the street and then we changed our minds and decided to go down to the ferries and look around. Just then I thought about the Governor’s Island boat. Se we hunted it out – found that it was leaving in just seven minutes and decided to go for a sail. Our ocean voyage was all too short. We arrived at Governor’s Island and looked the whole place over as far as my experienced eye suggested that it would be desirable. We went into the little chapel and saw it even and we saw the Statue of Liberty on one side and the Point of Manhattan on the other. As it was a cloudless Spring day, we were quite please with our adventure and took the boat back to New York, quite determined to come again and bring Evelyn Hope.

I object to loafers and picnickers on a government reservation but I felt that there was a distinction where we were concerned because I knew where we could go and we went very quietly and without leaving any banana peels or paper bags in our wake, although, it was strictly a sightseeing expedition. After we landed, we caught one of the new hobble-skirt surface cars, the first we’d ever been on, and rode slowly up Broadway – I pointing out the places of interest that Papa had previously shown me with such effect that Sally was moved to say that my father must be a very interesting man to go around with.

Hobble skirt cars on Broadway in New York City (1914)

Altogether, we had an awfully good time because we just followed our impulses and did the things that suggested themselves. It was a lot more fun that it would have been if we had planned things out ahead. Someday, if we can, we all want to go up to West Point by boat. I hope we can for it’s so pretty and I’d like the boat trip and I think too the other girls would have a better time if they went with me because they wouldn’t have the fear of going where they weren’t sure they were allowed. Anyway, we are planning a trip and I hope the boats will stay before Sally has to go away.

I’m rather sorry to see our family break up as it will in about five weeks more for we have been very congenial. We all have good times together and we all have a thorough respect for each other so we could live together a long time without regretting it. Evelyn Hope and Sally are from North Carolina and Virginia so they are likely to meet again especially as they both expect to be back next year but as for me, my wanderings are so uncertain of course that it is hard to guess whether I will ever meet them again or not. At any rate, we’ve had a pretty good time.

Today it is raining so hard it is hardly possible to see how it was clear yesterday. I see that there is mail coming in on Saturday. I’m going out to Mrs. May’s so I will not get it until Sunday night – if I return at that time as I hope. This is probably my last trip out to Mrs. May’s as I am going to be too busy from now on to be able to go. It the rain lets up at all, I’m going to make a call in Brooklyn this afternoon and I ought to go to Nell’s this evening. I am in hopes it will clear off.

I’m wondering how large a town Batangas is. I had no idea there would be any stores where you could get much of anything but you spoke of something as if there might be a dry goods place of some description. That surprised me greatly.

Reba seems farther off than you do. I hear from her so seldom. I wonder what she does with herself all the time for she certainly is not a good correspondent. [Note: In fact, no letters from Reba have been preserved. She would die five years later of the Spanish flu.]

I had a note from Col. Newcomer the other day. Mrs. Newcomer is improving slowly and they hope soon to be able to go home. Both send regards to you.

Now it is clearing up so I must finish this and a letter I started to Reba and write a note to Mrs. May and then take them all out and mail them as they are all rather pressing and must be sent immediately.

Bertha

I think it was too but am obliged to confess that Mr. Drummond worked on it twice which made considerable difference

To both parents from Bertha – April 3, 1913

Dear Papa and Mamma,

This is the darkest, foggiest day I have ever seen in New York. I went up to the League this afternoon to see how the light was but couldn’t work as it was too dark to see in my corner. It didn’t matter much anyways because Mr. Drummond had approved my painting on Tuesday and there isn’t much more I can do to it. He says I’m improving as I could very well see myself in this week’s work. It was such a marked advance over my former work – and, I was told by various students, the best likeness in the class this week. I think it was too but am obliged to confess that Mr. Drummond worked on it twice which made considerable difference. He is certainly a wonderful teacher and very much interested in his pupils. The more I see and hear of the methods of the other teachers in the League, the more I am convinced that Mr. Drummond is the only one there who bases his teaching on the absolute sound principles and not mannerisms for a good foundation. I cannot imagine a better teacher and I would almost be willing to think after studying with Mr. Drummond a few years an artist need not go to any other but would have a good foundation upon which he could launch out for himself. I haven’t a good foundation because I am comparatively a mere beginner but I still believe that I can work by myself and that I am so much more capable of doing it myself and that I am so much more capable of doing it now than I was two years ago that there is simply no comparison. People say Mr. Drummond is insistent upon drawing and in a way he is but his one great demand is that things shall be done with appreciation for this beauty and he doesn’t care at all for the technique if it expresses the beauty fully. If it does, it must be right.

[Note: At around this time, America saw its first large exhibition of modern art in New York, where Bertha is studying. The show introduced Americans, who were accustomed to realistic art, to the experimental styles of the European avant garde, including Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism. Interestingly, Bertha never mentions abstract art in any of her letters. She likely wasn’t a fan.]

I took dinner with Mrs. May, Monday evening and afterwards went to hear “La Donne Curiose.” It was very pretty but I like it less than any opera and have heard because it was more a little society play with lovely scenery and music instead of being a really great emotional affair. It was worth hearing however and Ferrari and Scotti sang.

Just now, we are rejoicing for Evelyn Hope a little. It seems pretty certain her uncle Josephus will be Secretary of the Navy – and of course she is glad – especially as she will be able to visit them in Washington next winter and has never been there. [Note: Joseph Daniels would indeed appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to serve as Secretary of the Navy during World War I.] I think it’s pretty nice for her and she says her grandmother will be awfully pleased. Her grandmother was left a widow at twenty-eight – at the end of the Civil War, with three boys to educate and nothing on Earth to do it with and all her friends just as poor as she is so it’s no wonder if she is pleased to have her sons win distinction. Her other son, one other that is, is a judge and Evelyn Hope’s father is a pretty influential lawyer and a very bright man, so _____ Ulghman told me.

I noticed that a Manila mail reaches here Sunday morning – to my disgust. I won’t get it till Monday I take it for granted that I will get a letter from you.

Oh, I didn’t tell you that General Simpson has improved greatly. I was very glad to hear that.

Mr. Lee is now aide to the Chief of Staff so I suppose he “made hay” last summer when he was still with the Secretary of War’s party.

Did I tell you I tried to convert Mrs. Godsey to women’s suffrage? It was a total failure and I must say that I think I was at a disadvantage considering that the English ladies have been misbehaving very badly lately as I quite freely admit.

Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) poster from 1909.

Evelyn Hope has been making a good-looking silk dress lately. It makes me feel quite a dress-making _____ but as I don’t want to make anything by hand. I guess I will satisfy myself with trimming a hat shortly after Easter.

We are going to give a dinner for Miss Newman next week and form an Alumnal Association. Incidentally, we have got to make peace cards [Note: If someone is familiar with “peace cards”, please contact us] and pay out about a dollar and a half each which goes sorely against the grain. However, it might as well be now as later so I’ll have to make up my mind to it.

Well now I must write to Reba and attend to a few other things.

Love to all,

Bertha

Miss Blossom’s father was visiting them and he is quite an interesting old man – a Civil War veteran

To C.C. Ballou from Bertha – April 6, 1913

Dear Papa,

There is a boat going with mail in a few days as I want to get a letter off tonight. This has been quite a strenuous day as I did not leave the League [Note: Her art school] until nearly half past five and last night I want to hear Caruso and _____ and _____ in _____. Several of us went and stood – also standing in line from six till seven thirty to begin with. It was well worth the fatigue however for it is a very beautiful opera having it at the little theater, which I think is a good thing. We have a platform built in the dining room now. It’s a perfect nuisance but will be down in two more weeks, thank goodness. In general, the Club is running fairly smoothly now – better than last year and Miss Newman’s nerves are greatly improved which is good thing for her and for us _____ for she is much more popular and has much more loyal support from the girls. I have not heard from Mrs. _____ since I was out there.

My roommates and I are planning to make the boat trip up to West Point some Sunday when it gets a little warmer. Neither of them have ever seen West Point and I think the boat trip will be fun. I was expecting a letter from Mamma yesterday as I noticed that there were two Philippine mails yesterday but none came. I hope you are alright. We are having constant rehearsals our play now so that most of our evenings are taken up. They have given up and both _____ and _____ sang beautifully thought _____ had been sick and began to cough as he came on the stage so that I was afraid he was going to have to give it up.

Sunday evening I spent with Nell _____ and enjoyed it very much. Miss Blossom’s father was visiting them and he is quite an interesting old man – a Civil War veteran and – to me – a typical New Englander.

…

…last. She was quite sick then as a result of food poisoning a year ago. Spring is really here and I hoped to spend part of the day in the park but now it is clouding over so much that I’m afraid it will be impossible. Seven Columbia students are coming down to see my roommate this afternoon and I believe I am expected to entertain one of them so I hope it won’t rain so that we can go out for a walk. I’ve only heard only recently from Reba. She says Riley is not very interesting for a married woman without her husband and I suppose that’s true, so she doesn’t find very much to write about. I have had several invitations to visit on my way West but doubt I’ll be accepting any as my change of time will upset the plans of _____ I was counting on and some of the others are too far off my route. Mrs. ______ has been so ill that I doubt my being wanted in Washington even as late as August and the Gandy’s will have left long before that for the summer. I thought of stopping off a few days at _____ _____ and a new baby and _____ Guthrie is away as that I expect I’d be a bother.

This Mexican scare has certainly upset Army _____ plans a great deal this year but things seem to be quieting down a little more so I hope the troops may be recalled from the border before the summer is over.

Love to all.

One hypochondriac, one high school boy and one “missing link” as we call him

To C.C. Ballou from Bertha – June 24, 1913

Dear Papa,

This last week has been a very busy one and yesterday about the busiest day of all. I was up and down stairs at six o’clock. After breakfast, I walked down to the Post Office and back – a distance of about half a mile and then got my painting materials and worked, only stopping for lunch until nearby six. I like to work very much but was somewhat disappointed when our model left us yesterday and I was just nicely started on the biggest canvas I have ever attempted.

We will now turn our attention exclusively to landscape. I needed a start in that very badly and I think that a month will help a great deal. It is pretty expensive – a good deal more so I expected for the lessons are twenty-five a month and the materials are used up a good deal more rapidly as we make a good many more canvases in a week and larger ones than I have previously done. This morning I have been out for a walk. It is a lovely country – in the Berkshires and we are only about five minutes’ walk from the state line as I have been in Massachusetts this morning. It’s an ideal place for the summer and does not seem to get really hot at all. The milk and bread and butter agrees with me, too.

I’ve been up here. In company, this isn’t much of a place – there are the Shakers who are rather interesting and whom we’re getting acquainted with. Three or four elderly women, two or three old maids and younger married women – all painting – three of us about my age and pretty congenial and about four rather nondescript men and boys – including one hypochondriac, one high school boy and one “missing link” as we call him also wears a painfully downy mistake and what he fondly imagines to be artistic hair. Mr. Johansen, an instructor, is rather young man between thirty-five and forty, full of rigor and vitality and very much bent on making us work. His wife is also quite a distinguished artist.

I’m awfully glad I came here and am enjoying every minute of it. This morning, two of us have been out _____ out the land for more work. There are a good many bulls around which is our main trouble but I guess they are pretty well pinned up and we are learning what fields to sketch them in though sometimes I wish the fences were higher. This afternoon, we are going to Mrs. Johansen’s to team. It is about two miles so I think we will have had plenty of exercise for one day when we have walked over and back in addition to the distance we walked this morning.

June 24th we made our trip to Mr. Johansen’s and had a good time though it seems quite a long trip over and back. Since then, I’ve been making half day sketches and have seemed a good deal encouraged by the enjoyment I have made. Evelyn Hope and I are about the contented people here as the others seem to feel a great longing for moving picture shoes and such luxuries and we are nearly dying of boredom. It is an awfully out of the way place but I’ve seen much worse and I don’t mind the lack of amusement in the evening because I’m too tired and I go to bed pretty early.

Please tell Mamma that I will invite her soon but there is little to write and I am busy all day and the kerosene lamp is not very good so I don’t do any writing at night. In fact, the evenings are so fine that I am almost never in my room except to sleep. I’m getting quite a coat of sunburn after my winter in New York. I guess I’ll be hardened to the sun before I leave here. Just now I’m beginning to be afraid that I didn’t bring as many supplies in my trunk as I’ll need for painting in the islands [Note: The Philippines] but I guess I will be able to order from San Francisco through Mr. McCullough’s. Anyway, I am learning how to do without a lot of my seemingly essential things. Some of the boys here make their own sketch _____ in half a day. Maybe I could get a Filipino to make me one if I find myself in great need.

Love to all,

Bertha