Painter Marion H. Beckett in court
March is Women’s History Month. NY1920s always tries to center women’s history; this month we’ll do so a bit more emphatically.
Standard Union, 2 March 1921, p. 14. Chronicling America.
One hundred years ago today … acclaimed painter Marion (misspelled as “Marian” in the newspapers) H. Beckett defended herself in the case brought by Clara Smith Steichen.
Steichen was suing Beckett for $250,000, according to Brooklyn’s Standard Union, for causing alienation of her husband’s affections–a legal tort, now mostly abolished, that meant exactly what it sounds like.
Beckett, a native New Yorker who spent her time between NYC and Paris, was known as a portraitist and an associate of Alfred Stieglitz, having exhibited in galleries of Stieglitz and his collaborator Marius De Zayas (about whom see our post for May 15, 1920).
One of her most famous portraits would be that of artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
Marian H. Beckett, “Georgia O’Keefe.” The Arts, Vol. III. no. 2, February 1923, p. 133. Internet Archive.
She had painted both of the Steichens, Clara and Eduard, in 1915.
Marion H. Beckett, “Mrs. Eduard J. Steichen,” 1915. Yale University Library.
Marion H. Beckett, “Mrs. Eduard J. Steichen,” 1915. Yale University Library.
Steichen’s suit against her husband named, in addition to Beckett, the famous avant-garde dancer Isadora Duncan, of whom the News, being the News, decided to run a front-page photo.
Daily News, 2 March 1921, p. 1. Chronicling America.
The suit charged that Eduard Steichen had ignored his wife in favor of “waiting in line for crumbs of Duncan’s favor.”
Read the Herald’s full report about the case:
New York Herald, 2 March 1921, p. 11. Chronicling America.
– Jonathan Goldman, March 1, 2021
TAGS: women artist, painting, visual arts, marriage, divorce, law, infidelity, trial, courtroom