Chinese painting as reflected in the thought and art of Li Lung-mien, 1070-1106,
(This is a study of the art and philosophy of the 11th cen...)
This is a study of the art and philosophy of the 11th century Chinese painter Li Lung-Mien (also known as Long Gonglin), his times, and the circles he moved in. He was especially renowned for his paintings of horses (and owned at least one original painting by the master horse painter, Han Gan) but was equally adept at painting Buddhist and Daoist themes, landscapes and other genre. Agnes E. Meyer was the mother of Katharine Graham, the legendary publisher of the Washington Post, and a passionate collector of Chinese art. This book is dedicated to a man she befriended while still in her 20s, Charles Lang Freer, the Detroit industrialist and museum founder.
(These Articles Are The Result Of An Intensive Journey Fro...)
These Articles Are The Result Of An Intensive Journey From September 3 To October 5, 1942, Through Edinburgh, Glasgow, Clydeside, Newcastle, Tyneside, Bristol, The Five Counties South Of Bristol, Cardiff And The Southern Valleys Of Wales.
Agnes E. Meyer was an American journalist, writer, and philanthropist.
Background
Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer was born on January 2, 1887, in New York City. She was the daughter of Frederick H. Ernst, a lawyer, and Lucie Schmidt. A daily ritual of "icy baths" thought necessary to build a strong moral character supplemented a strict Lutheran upbringing by her parents, immigrants from northern Germany. Her three brothers treated her as one of the boys, and she once described herself as a "tomboy, " unafraid to stand up for the underdog. Her most intense relationship was with her father, with whom she strongly identified. Her autobiography, Out of These Roots (1953), makes repeated reference to that relationship. She described her "extraordinary Oedipus complex" and wrote that she "was always unconsciously looking for father substitutes. " An infatuation with male luminaries such as Paul Claudel, Thomas Mann, and Ignace Jan Paderewski continued throughout her life.
Education
During her early childhood, Ernst's father developed a successful law practice in rural Pelham Heights, New York, but moved the family to New York City in 1899. By the time she was an adolescent, her father had begun to write books and plays, neglecting the family and his law practice. She was devastated by her father's opposition to her pursuit of a college education, a dream he had inspired in her. After attending Morris High School she won a scholarship to Barnard College and enrolled in 1903. Bored with, and inattentive to, her math classes, she was branded "irresponsible. " She lost her scholarship and had to work at a variety of jobs to continue her education. She also changed her field of specialization from mathematics to philosophy and literature. Although she did not meet John Dewey until her senior year, she credited him with planting the seeds of her social conscience and commitment to public service.
Career
After graduating from Barnard in 1907, Agnes became the first female reporter for the New York Morning Sun, a job that brought her into contact with people such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Although she was impressed by the innovative photography of the first two, Flynn's orations left her with a lifelong "contempt for American radicalism. " Ernst traveled to Paris in 1908 to study at the Sorbonne, yet her memories were more of people than of schooling. Meyer neverthless continued to write professionally. Her first book, Chinese Painting as Reflected in the Thought and Art of Li Lungmien (1923), followed years of study of Chinese art, literature, and philosophy at Columbia University and a close friendship with the collector Charles L. Freer. The work tried to capture the wisdom of the Chinese sages and urged Western peoples to distrust philosophical ideals not used to improve human relations. Meyer received an education in politics after being recruited by William Lukens ("Boss") Ward in 1921 to get out the female voters for Republicans in Westchester County. She turned down an opportunity to run for office herself, saying that she must put her family first. Yet, she accepted when Ward appointed her chairman of the Recreation Commission of Westchester County, a post she held from 1923 to 1941. Meyer and the commission promoted festivals, concerts, athletic events, workshops, and summer camp for disadvantaged children. This position marked the beginning of her lifelong commitment to social reform.
Agnes wrote a series of Associated Press articles about the British people's brave efforts to cope with the ravages of war. The success of that series led her to travel around the United States to assess conditions on the home front. She documented problems of war centers throughout the country, such as child labor, delinquency, racial discrimination, and the disintegration of family life and moral character. She pleaded for improving community life and moral education. These pessimistic reports were published as Journey Through Chaos (1944). She also covered postwar progress and publicized community-center projects such as the Chicago Back of the Yards movement. In the 1940's, Meyer began to press for a cabinet-status department of health, education, and security, an organ of the federal government that would promote human welfare. She also launched a campaign for federal aid to public education.
Agnes Meyer often wrote for the Post, but even though she was a legal partner at the paper, she did not share in its management. In fact, the news department had orders not to print any writings of Meyer family members or anything written about them without Eugene Meyer's approval. In the late 1930's the Post did publish Agnes Meyer's review of Thomas Mann's Joseph in Egypt. Mann was pleased with the review and granted Meyer an interview; thus began their twenty-year friendship. She later translated his Coming Victory of Democracy and other works. During World War II, Meyer's son, Eugene Meyer III, and Philip Graham urged Meyer to put aside her literary project, a comparison of the works of Mann, Tolstoy, and Dostoevski, to write about the war effort. She flew to Britain in September 1942. Meyer remained active until her death at Seven Springs Farm.
Achievements
Meyer lectured widely, contributed articles to a number of publications, and carried out philanthropic work for public education and social reform. In December 1944 she and her husband created the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, to fund community service, the arts and humanities, and projects in physical and mental health and education. In her later years she worked for improvements in public education through the Urban Service Corps and the National Committee for Support of the Public Schools.
While living, Meyer was honored by receiving 14 honorary degrees, and awards from the Women's National Press Club, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), AFL-CIO, and National Conference of Christians and Jews. After Meyer's death, the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation donated Seven Springs Estate to Yale University. Later it was incorporated as a nonprofit conference center. In 1984 the property went to Rockefeller University, which continued to use it as a conference center.
The Washington Post established the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award in 1983 to recognize exceptional teachers. More than 500 teachers in the Metropolitan Washington area have received this honor in her name. The Library of Congress holds the Agnes Elizabeth Ernst Meyer Papers which includes her diaries, correspondence with family, friends, and her career as an author and social activist, her speeches, and an unpublished manuscript for a memoir.
During the 1950's, Meyer spared no words in denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy and his red-baiting allies as a threat to academic freedom. In Education for a New Morality (1957) she reacted to the devastating possibilities of an atomic world and challenged Americans to become "global citizens" by developing a creative system of public education to bridge the gap between science and humanism. Quoting Dewey, she argued that education could use the scientific method for social well-being. She hoped that the American child would grow up to be "a composite of citizen and scientist. " Women as dedicated mothers, she declared, were vital to this goal. Her observations of the home front during the war had led her to an indictment of American women as "more selfish and more material" than American men. Meyer bitterly criticized the "disastrous" influence of postwar feminists who competed with men. In Meyer's view, woman's natural expertise was in "co-operative living, " her greatest asset was "humility, " and her "proper role" was found in the family. Meyer, who had recognized her own inadequacies in adjusting to traditional roles in raising her children, called the American woman back to the home, and to motherhood in particular, for, to her, it was only woman as mother who could "close the tragic gap between emotion and reason. "
Personality
Meyer met the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi, the French composer Darius Milhaud, and the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. She also developed a friendship with Leo Stein, but she had "an immediate antipathy" for his sister, Gertrude Stein, whose appearance and demeanor "offended" her "aesthestic sense. " One woman who did impress Ernst during her stay in Paris was the scientist Marie Curie.
The Meyers maintained two places of residence and entertained lavishly in both. They often spent the summers at Seven Springs Farm in Mount Kisco, New York, and the rest of the year they lived at Crescent Place in Washington, D. C. Eugene Meyer held a number of public service positions in Washington from the 1920's on. In 1932 he became chairman of the board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). In 1933 he resigned from the RFC, and following his wife's suggestion, he bought the Washington Post. Philip L. Graham, who was married to the Meyers' daughter Katharine, became publisher of the Post in 1946. After his suicide in 1963, Katharine Meyer Graham took over the newspaper.
Meyer was very illness person, and had some alcohol problem.
Connections
On February 12, 1910, Agnes married Eugene Meyer, a financier eleven years her senior. Being pregnant with the first of her five children, she resisted traditional female roles and returned to graduate school. She was especially unprepared for motherhood and often forgot to go home to nurse her baby.
Father:
Frederic Meyer
Mother:
Lucy Ernst Meyer
Daughter:
Elizabeth Meyer Lorentz
1913–2001
Was an author who was married to Pare Lorentz.
Daughter:
Florence Meyer Homolka
January 22, 1911 – November 27, 1962
Was an American portrait photographer and socialite.
Daughter:
Ruth Meyer
1921–2007
Daughter:
Katharine Meyer Graham
June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001
Was an American publisher and the first female publisher of a major American newspaper.
Son:
Eugene "Bill" Meyer III
1915–1982
Was a physician and medical professor.
Friend:
Katharine Nash Rhoades
November 30, 1885 - October 26, 1965
Was an American painter, poet and illustrator born in New York City. She was also a feminist.
Friend:
Marion Hasbrouck Beckett
February 7, 1886 – 1949
Was an American painter.
Friend:
Paul Thomas Mann
6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955
Was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.
husband:
Eugene Isaac Meyer
October 31, 1875 – July 17, 1959
Was an American financier, public official, and newspaper publisher.
