Emma Stebbins to Anne Whitney, August 5, 1879

Emma Stebbins to Anne Whitney, August 5, 1879

Artists--Sculptors-- Italian

Artists

Arts--Sculpture

Illness

Family

Whitney, Anne, 1821-1915

Frustration

Friendship

Artists--Sculptors--US American

Stebbins tells Whitney how happy she is that their friendship still remains to this day and that Anne Whitney keeps up the correspondence. She then responds to Whitney's comments on art and how hard it is to learn from mistakes in sculpture since one cannot fix the mistakes on a finished piece. Stebbins asks to see the first sketches of Whitney's Harriet Martineau since she always loved the first steps in the artistic process the most.
She then talks about the "rest cure"- which she found herself obliged to abandon since she has found out from Emma Crow Cushman's neighbor's daughter that might be detrimental to one's health. Stebbins still feels a creative spark, though she has stopped working on sculptures and she invites Whitney to visit. She talks about her current and upcoming visitors: " I am looking now for a visit from my Brother whose health is causing us much anxiety - my sister Mrs Garland comes on Thursday. Mrs Fleming is with me now - and my Cornell[?] boy - comes on the 13th" and tells Whitney about how her sister recently read her poems on a summer day.

Credit

Wellesley College Archives

Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882

1879-08-05

Reference

[page 1] 5th /79 Lenox Mass. August Dear friend your letter of the 20th was an unseeable surprise to me - you had left my last so long unanswered, that I concluded you were too deeply engaged in real work to be able to attend the time for a mere intruder of the sacred precincts - One stranded and unless on the shores of the mighty river of art. I dont think this kind of resulting correspondence is exactly the right thing - If I could afford to let you go altogether I should say dont write unless you feel you want to, unless the electric chain thrills so between you and your correspondent - that you cant help uniting. This can never be, when the poor letter is laid on the shelf, indefinitely and the thought it carries, awakens no responsive thought to send back in return non è vero? - But it is the curse of this century that we live in such an atmosphere of overwork - overstimulation - such a surplus of ideas - such a pressure of influences all around us, that we miss the still sweet voices, too much that the real true things of our better selves the things of the innermost as the Germans call it - get no nourishment of the right
[page 2] sort. and we are wasted in abortive experiences! - still — better is half a loaf than no bread - I am always glad to hear from you - when and how you can - and will! Thanks for the studio news your [...] me. I am always interested in them - Yes you are right in all you say as to the manner in which a true artist ought to work. the hand is too often the chief factor in our doings - the pressure of [...] influences forcing us into a haste which is fatal to our highest efforts - happy are those who can resist them! ah how hard it is to know and to do – to do first and to know afterwards, is so sad. and in our art saddest of all, because what we do is so imperishable - so irretrievable! - How often I have groaned in spirit over this thought to have to go through life - crying to oneself "Oh if I could only do it over again!" my experience was a peculiar one, which if I could write it out exactly as I knew it and felt it, would teach many a lesson. - but I could not do it, without reflecting upon influences which were honest though mistaken, and after all what is one [...] visit of a life, in the great sum of things.
[page 3] I did my little part as well as I could, and with some of the saving grace of truth and love to sanctify it - whatever its failures as Lowell says— "good god not only reckons the moment when we tread his ways But when the spirit beckons" – and through all my life the spirit has greatly led me - perhaps in some other sphere. I shall be stronger to obey it. - pardon my egotism. I would rather talk of you than myself - I would prefer to see your Harriet Martineau- in your first idea. Than even further in, though I doubt not your ability to perfect it more & more - but I always love best the first creation - more than the finished work - and herein I seem to contradict what I have just been saying but you see my meaning, the soul of the work, if it is a true soul - is born and lives through it all, and an artist's eye can see it in the first effect as in the last - I have always loved but these first inspirations and used to say if I had my choice I would rather own any true artist's studies - than his finished works - [...] the studies and sketches of great artists gathered in so many museums, how living. how suggestive how divine they are! something comes through the hand in these moments - which not all
[page 4] the labour & finish in the world can improve upon. More of the labor and finish loses it. you ask about the "rest cure"- which I found myself obliged to abandon the idea of. for various reasons - the chief being that I found I could not afford it. Then the uncertainty. I have since learned the improbability of my having Sallie with me - and late information from a reliable source, gives me reason to congratulate myself that I was prevented from trying the experiment. a lady whom I know well - in fact a neighbor of Mrs Cushman's family - has been very nearly killed by the process - and she does not hesitate to proclaim that she was altogether badly and mistakenly healed - given over to nurses and assistant doctors - her friends kept in ignorance of her state - finally just rescued from an almost dying condition - by a friend who chanced in, and mistakenly telegraphed for her mother the [...] child was taken in a bed back to Boston and is still in an almost hopeless condition I tell the tale as 'twas told to me - it comes very directly, and sounds altogether badly so it was well I did not go and I am very thankful to say my state is decidedly better this summer than the last I am not well or strong — have a guard comply against any over taxation - but I am capable
[page 5] of much more, and life is easier and pleasanter[sic!]. - as to work, that seems to be still far enough off. though I have at times faint nebulous shimmers of the old glow and thrill, which give me a shock of surprise - as if there might yet be a spark alive under the ashes. - when am I over to see you and your doings to talk with you in these mutual themes Echo answers when! - I wish you could come & see Lenox - I wish I could see you in my own little home - which is so sweet & so dear to me - but I am & shall be full
[page 6] all summer — for this is now our only home and its capacity is very limited I am looking now for a visit from my Brother whose health is causing us much anxiety - my sister Mrs Garland comes on Thursday. Mrs Fleming is with me now - and my Cornell [?] boy - comes on the 13th =. Sallie begs to be remembered to you. she is my stay and comfort as usual. I must not forget a message from my sister — she says I must tell you that she has found [...] for herself in your poem on "Joy", which has given her much pleasure. she [...] are the books she can find - and she brought this out to read to me as we sat in the Piazza coming with the green hills - This morning- Then she read me the sonnets in "Beauty"-. The post waits for no man - and I am summoned to close this -- Believe me always faithfully yours E.S.

Stebbins, Emma, 1815-1882

Whitney, Anne, 1821-1915

Lenox, MA, US

40.8816547

-94.5619095

Boston, MA, US

Letter from Emma Stebbins, Lennox, Massachusetts, to Anne Whitney, 1879 August 5 | Wellesley College Digital Repository. Papers of Anne Whitney (MSS.4): Correspondence. 2009.