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From the late nineteenth
century until World War II,
Paris was a center of sexual freedom and
same-sex sexual cultures. Lesbian American and European expatriates and
France's own lesbian writers and artists created a Bohemian social, sexual,
and creative milieu that makes this time and place unique in the history of
lesbian culture. Click here to view Lesbian Paris, Part 1. |
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Marie Laurençin |
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 Gisèle Freund
(1908?-2000), an accomplished photojournalist, is best remembered as a
chronicler of the vibrant Bohemian community of writers and artists in
Paris during the 1930s. |
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Eileen Gray
(1878-1976) was an architect and designer of furniture, rugs, and
lacquered screens, some of which have become icons of early modern
design. Though reclusive by nature, Gray was familiar with the circles
of Natalie Clifford Barney and Gertrude Stein and developed a close
friendship with Romaine Brooks. |
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Radclyffe Hall
(1880-1943), who lived her lesbianism openly and proudly, is best known
for The Well of Loneliness, arguably the most important lesbian
novel ever written. Much of the novel is set in Paris, a city
Hall knew well. |
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Florence Henri
(1893-1982) was an American-born avant-garde photographer who settled
in Paris in 1920. Though she was reticent about her own bisexuality,
much of Henri's work expressed an interest in gender and the nude
female body. |
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Wanda Landowska
(1879-1959), a member of Natalie Clifford Barney's circle, was almost
single-handedly responsible for the revival of the harpsichord as a
performance instrument in the twentieth century. |
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Marie Laurençin
(1883-1956) was a French painter, portrait artist, and set designer
who was associated with the salons of Gertrude Stein and Natalie
Clifford Barney. Her feminine approach to cubist painting has elicited
scorn from some critics and praise from others. |
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Tamara de Lempicka (1898?-1980), a
Polish-born painter, remains popular today for her highly sexualized art
deco portraits. She spent much of the 1920s in Paris's literary
Bohemia, where she developed friendships with several notable lesbian
writers. |
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Maud Hunt Squire
(1873-1955) and
Ethel Mars (1876-1956) were American artists
and lifelong partners who forged distinguished careers in book
illustration, painting, and woodblock printing. Émigrées to
Paris, they frequented Gertrude Stein's salons where they met such
luminaries as Picasso and Matisse. |
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 Gertrude Stein
(1874-1946) was an American-born modernist writer as well as
half of an iconic lesbian couple. She and her partner Alice B. Toklas, both American expatriates, hosted a Parisian salon that attracted some of the most prominent artists,
writers, and intellectuals of the era including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse,
Thornton Wilder, and Natalie Clifford Barney. |
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Renée Vivien
(1877-1909), an English-born writer, is often remembered for her
dramatic life and turbulent affair with Natalie Clifford Barney, but
she was an astoundingly prolific author in her own right. Among many
other achievements, Vivien almost single-handedly reclaimed Sappho as a
lesbian. |
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Thelma Wood (1901-1970) is best known for her affair with Djuna
Barnes, as depicted in Barnes's classic novel Nightwood, but was
herself an artist. Originally a sculptor, she also practiced the
obscure craft of silverpoint drawing. |
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Photo Credits:
Images of Marie Laurençin and Gertrude Stein courtesy Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Division. Image of Marie Laurençin by Carl Van
Vechten. Image of Gertrude Stein is a detail from a portrait by
Carl Van Vechten. |
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