7 Rue des Grands Augustins and the Femme Soldat
The Guardian article features a well-known photograph of Picasso and Lee in his studio at 7 Rue des Grands Augustins, taken by Lee after the liberation of Paris. This photograph frequently appears in publications about Lee after Lives and is generally accompanied by a statement attributed to Picasso – “The first allied soldier I have seen is a woman – she is you.” This revelation first appears in Roland Penrose’s 1981 autobiography, Scrapbook without supporting authority (1). Although the photograph and the quote have been woven into the narrative, its veracity has yet to be examined.
It is often erroneously reported that Lee was present in Paris on Liberation Day August 25th, 1944. By correspondence to her editor, Audrey Withers, dated August 26-27th, 1944, Lee indicated that she would be leaving from Rennes, France to Paris at approximately 7:00 on the evening of August 27th (2). Leaving aside wartime conditions, Lee would have arrived in Paris late on the evening of August 27th. Therefore, Lee’s first “workday” could not have been before August 28th, 1944, three days after the liberation of Paris. As a matter of historical context, it is difficult to imagine that there were any Parisians that did not see an Allied soldier in Paris between August 25th and August 28th, 1944.
In the early morning of August 25th, 1944, the Allied occupation force poured into Paris. General LeClerc advanced with a French Division of 16,000 men, 200 tanks and 4,200 vehicles. The Americans advanced with a similar force of the U.S. Army 4th Mechanized Infantry Division. The German forces had essentially abandoned its defense of Paris with the exception of light pockets of opposition. By the afternoon of August 25th, the German forces had formally surrendered, and Paris was occupied by the Allies.
On the following day, Charles DeGaulle led the French 2nd Armored Division from the Arc de Triomphe towards Notre Dame for a mass of celebration. Paris was a city occupied by tens of thousands of Allied forces as referenced by the foregoing article- Paris was inundated with soldiers and citizens, like Picasso- a city in joyous celebration. Notwithstanding occasional sniper fire there were approximately two million Parisians celebrating the victory. Sniper fire escalated at the approach to Notre Dame which created panic and casualties. Upon entering Notre Dame, DeGaulle and his commanders encountered additional snipers as they approached the altar of Notre Dame without flinching (3). It was reported that there were 100-300 casualties. This is the Paris where Picasso did not see an Allied soldier.
At this time, Lee was still in Rennes with other women correspondents being sequestered by the US military until Paris was safe. Then, on August 27th and 28th Allied soldiers and materials poured into Paris establishing the infrastructure that would support the Allies push to Berlin. On the morning of August 25th, 1944, The Hotel Scribe housed the German propaganda and communications center in Paris. By the evening, it was the center of Allied communications housing 250 military censors, 200 correspondents and broadcasting Allied victory in Paris to the world (4).
As the 4th Division moved thousands of men into the center of Paris on August 25th, 1944, the bulk of their forces followed the left bank (including the Rue des Grands Augustins) which was within 100 meters or so of Picasso’s studio. Moments before intersecting with Rue des Grands Augustins an Allied force advanced to engage a 700-man German force at the Luxembourg Gardens. Fortunately, the Germans were waiting to surrender. Effectively, 7 Rue des Grands Augustins was surrounded on three sides by Allied soldiers on August 25th, but ironically, while it is probable that Picasso saw the Allied troops advance on the morning of August 25th, he did not see them from 7 Rue des Grands Augustins, but rather from the balcony of 1 Boulevard Henri IV on I’lle Saint Louis. For perspective of locations, click here. (1 Boulevard Henri IV is on the southern corner of the eastern tip of I’lle Saint Louis directly on the Seine River facing the left bank).
In 1964 Françoise Gilot published her book Life With Picasso. Although it is not central to her relationship with Picasso, she does describe one of the first events at Picasso’s studio during the liberation as being the appearance of Ernest Hemingway to see Picasso. In a well-known story, Gilot recounts that Hemingway was informed by Picasso’s housekeeper that Picasso was not at home. Hemingway left a box of hand grenades as a calling card at 7 Rue des Grands Augustins but of significance to this forum, Gilot also offhandedly explains that Picasso was on I’lle Saint Louis, 1 Boulevard Henri IV, where he was staying with his former lover, Mari Therese Walder and their daughter Maya. Gilot explains that Picasso remained on I’lle Saint Louis until after the liberation. Gilot reports that he painted several works while he was on 1 Boulevard Henri IV including “La Bacchanale”(5).
Upon his return to his studio at 7 Rue des Grands Augustins, Picasso met Lee no earlier than August 28th, but is it is likely that he met with Hemingway who had returned with his future fourth wife, Mary Welsh, (the war correspondent) before the 28th. The meeting is described in the 1976 book How it Was by Mary Welsh (6). According to Welsh the event took place very shortly after the liberation of August 25th. Like Lee, Welsh and Hemingway would have been in Army correspondent uniforms during their meeting with Picasso. Although the date is not certain, Welsh reported her meeting with Picasso to Time Magazine and it was published on September 11th, 1944, more than a month earlier than Lee’s October 15th, 1944, Vogue publication of her encounter with Picasso.
Aside from the dates and events of the liberation, Picasso’s stay on the I’lle Saint Louis is of particular importance because it is there that he had a personal meeting and photography session with U.S. Army cameraman Francis Lee. This would be before Picasso left I’lle Saint Louis and returned to his studio where he had, at some later point, his photograph taken with Lee Miller in uniform.
Francis Lee was himself an avant-garde film maker and painter before and after the war. He enlisted in the U.S. Army infantry at the start of the war and served as an Army Signal Corp combat photographer from 1941-1945. Francis Lee shot 500,000 feet of film including the landing at Omaha beach on D-Day, June 6th, 1944. He survived D-Day although seventy-five percent of his unit was lost. After the war, Francis Lee continued avant-garde filmmaking and painting. He taught at New York University, exhibited his work at MOMA and other venues and is recognized today as leading early American avant-garde film direction. In 1948 Francis Lee married Michael (Corrine) West who was herself a founder of abstract expressionism along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Ashile Gorky and others who effectively moved the post World War II western art world from Paris to New York. West was reputedly the lover of Ashile Gorky although she rejected Gorky’s proposals of marriage several times (7).
It is unknown whether Francis Lee sought out Picasso or was on assignment to photograph him for the U.S. Army. However, in her book, Life With Picasso, Françoise Gilot writes:
“For weeks after the Liberation you couldn’t walk ten feet inside his atelier without falling over the recumbent body of some young GI. They all had to see Picasso but they were so tired they would just make it to the studio and then fall asleep. I remember once counting twenty of them sleeping in various parts of the studio. In the beginning they were mostly young writers, artists, and intellectuals. After a while they were simply tourists and at the head of their list, apparently, along with the Eiffel Tower, was Picasso’s studio”(8).
Francis Lee fits perfectly in Gilot’s description of the first influx of G.I.’s, “young, writers, artists, and intellectuals” that sought out Picasso upon the Liberation of August 25th, 1944. By the 28th of August, Lee Miller was simply another uniform standing in the queue. The fact that Francis Lee took his photographs before Picasso left the I’lle Saint Louis for his studio is evidence that Francis Lee skipped the queue. There are at least three photos of Picasso on the I’lle Saint Louis apartment taken by Francis Lee before Picasso returned to his studio. The photo with his daughter Maya is on the balcony of the apartment on the eastern tip of the I’lle Saint Louis. By turning his head to the right slightly, on the morning of August 25th, Picasso would have had a direct and upfront view of the 4th Division advancing along the left bank to the center of Paris, three days before the earliest day Lee Miller would find him at 7 Rue des Grand Augustins.
The dispositive point is there are photos of, and by, an Allied soldier with Picasso days before Lee Miller arrived at his studio. However, the words of Lee Miller herself are available on this point.
On October 15th,1944 Vogue published Lee’s article about her entrance and experience in Paris (9). No sooner than August 28th, Lee set out to gather information for her Vogue article. First, she met with the former French Vogue editor, Michel de Brunhoff, then she visited the artist Christian (Bebè) Bérard, and then Picasso followed by Paul Eluard and his wife Nusch and finally Jean Cocteau. Lee reports, in her own words, that she met with Christian Bérard and he told her that she was “the first “soldat” that he had contacted.” When Lee writes in Vogue about her subsequent meeting with Picasso, she writes effusively and extensively about their meeting, but she never says that Picasso exclaimed, “It’s incredible, the first allied soldier I should see and it is a woman- And it is you.”
Is it possible that this quote was lifted and augmented from the encounter with the relatively unknown Bérard and then transferred to the photo of Lee and Picasso? Lee herself never referenced such a statement during the course of her life other than to Christian Bérard. Although the Picasso quote is not particularly meaningful, it is presented as part of the legend for a purpose. The question is whether it is true or an example of ornamental narrative.
Footnotes:
(1) Penrose, Roland (1981) Scrapbook Rizzoli International Publications Inc (page 136)
(2) Penrose, Antony (2005) Lee Miller's War: Beyond D-Day Thames and Hudson Ltd (page 65)
(3) Weber, Ronald (2019) Dateline- Liberated Paris The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc (page 56)
(4) Weber, Ronald (2019) Dateline- Liberated Paris The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc
(5) Gilot, Françoise (1964) Life With Picasso New York Review of Books (page 53)
(6) Hemmingway, Mary Welsh (1976) How it Was Alfred A. Knopf, Inc (page 117)
(7) Edquist, Grace (November 26, 2019) “Remembering Michael West, A Forgotten Founder of Abstract Expressionism” Vogue
(8) Gilot, Françoise (1964) Life With Picasso New York Review of Books (page 55)
(9) Penrose, Antony (2005) Lee Miller's War: Beyond D-Day Thames and Hudson Ltd (page 67)