Beauford's Paris: Notre Dame Cathedral and Fauré's Requiem

Beauford lost his mother in February 1958 and mourned her death well into the month of May. According to his biography, Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, he heard Gabriel Fauré's Requiem performed at Notre Dame Cathedral and began to consider it a requiem for her.

Notre Dame Cathedral
© Discover Paris!
Click here* to listen to the Paris Orchestra and the Choir of the Paris Orchestra perform this magnificent work.

*Free of charge after watching the advertisement

Beauford's Gumbo Recipe

During his New York years, Beauford submitted a recipe for gumbo to Grenwich Village Gourmet. One of our readers, Raymina Mays, graciously sent me images of the cover of the publication and the recipe* itself, which is signed by Beauford.

Thanks, Raymina, for this invaluable contribution to the Les Amis blog!

*In Amazing Grace, David A. Leeming indicates that the recipe was published in 1949 and that according to Beauford's family tradition, his maternal grandfather had come from Dahomey.

Beauford's Art - The Clamart Years

Last week's posting featured Beauford's home in Clamart, a suburb located 9 km (~5.6 miles) south of Paris.

In James Baldwin's introduction to Beauford's 1964 exposition at the Gallery Lambert in Paris, Baldwin states that Beauford's paintings "underwent a most striking metamorphosis into freedom" during his years in Clamart. While I do not pretend to have vast knowledge of what Beauford produced during these years, I am taking the liberty of bringing you a few pieces from this period (1956-late 1961/early 1962) that I consider to be extraordinary. Enjoy!

Untitled (Yellow Abstraction)
(c. 1958-1959) Oil on paper, laid down on canvas
Aaron Galleries

Untitled (Abstract Composition)
(1961) Oil monotype on heavy wove paper
Photo courtesy of Swann Auction Galleries

Untitled
(1957) Oil on canvas
© Collection Centre Pompidou, Dist. RMN / Philippe Migeat

Untitled
(c. 1956) Watercolor and gouache on paper
Collection of the Delaney Estate

Nativity Scene
(1961) Oil on canvas
Private collection

Clamart: Beauford's Suburban Paris Home

In his introduction for Beauford's 1964 exposition at the Gallery Lambert in Paris, James Baldwin wrote:

In any case, from Tennessee, he eventually came to Paris (I have the impression that he walked and swam) and for awhile lived in a suburb of Paris, Clamart...

There was a window in Beauford's house in Clamart before which we often sat—late at night, early in the morning, at noon. This window looked out on a garden; or rather, it would have looked out on a garden if it had not been for the leaves and branches of a large tree which pressed directly against the window.

Everything one saw from this window, then, was filtered through these leaves...

I visited the city of Clamart earlier this week to find this house, the address of which—68, rue Paul Vaillant Couturier—is indicated in Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney. It stands at the top of a hill, a few doors away from the five-point roundabout at place Marquis and nestled between two other free-standing dwellings behind a stone wall.

68, rue Paul Vaillant Couturier, Clamart
© Discover Paris!

Biographer David A. Leeming tells us that the apartment was on the ground floor and that the window looked onto a garden in the back of the house. Though I was unable to enter the property at No. 68, I was able to see part of a garden behind a gate a few doors down the street; perhaps its appearance approximates what Beauford and Baldwin saw through Beauford's window:

Private garden on rue Paul Vaillant Couturier
© Discover Paris!
Beauford lived in Clamart from 1956 until late 1961-early 1962. I have been unable to find any photos of the area, or of the city in general, that date from this period. However, many of the buildings in the immediate vicinity appear to be old enough to have existed then.

Corner of rue des Rochers and rue Estienne d'Orves
© Discover Paris!

8, avenue Schneider
© Discover Paris!

1, avenue Schneider
© Discover Paris!
Significant renovation of such buildings is ongoing in the area, so at least some of the character of the neighborhood is being preserved.

The bar-tabac-brasserie Le Narval, on the other hand, has no genteel architectural features. It is located at 72, rue Paul Vaillant Couturier, on the corner with rue des Rochers and place Marquis.

Le Narval
© Discover Paris!
Beauford's home was ideally situated in that he was only a few blocks from the center of town and only two blocks from the forest called Bois de Clamart. Leeming tells us that he called it his "place in the country."

Today, small private lanes,

Rue Henry, a private lane
© Discover Paris!
wisteria tumbling gracefully over stone walls,

Wisteria overhanging a stone wall on rue Paul Vaillant Couturier
© Discover Paris!
and dazzling flower beds in public areas

Flower bed on rue du Président Roosevelt
© Discover Paris!
preserve a bit of the country atmosphere that Beauford enjoyed during his time there.