La Maison de Santé in Nogent

Beauford spent the Christmas holidays of 1961 and twenty (20) days in May 1962 at the private psychiatric institution called La Maison de Santé de Nogent-sur-Marne.

In Amazing Grace: A Life of Beauford Delaney, biographer David Leeming recounts that:

On December 20 Solange du Closel and her husband drove Beauford to the Nogent clinic where he was placed under the care of the well-known psychiatrist Dr. Ferdière, whose specialty was depression.

La Maison de Santé — the "Health House" — can still be found on the quiet rue de Plaisance in the eastern Paris suburb of Nogent-sur-Marne.

Street sign
© Entrée to Black Paris

It is a much smaller facility than the Hôpital Sainte-Anne, where Beauford spent the last four years of his life. (I recently learned that Dr. Ferdière worked at Sainte-Anne's for several years during the 1930s, long before Beauford arrived in Paris.)

Last week I visited the clinic for the first time and took photos of the campus.

The entrance is nondescript overall, with the only distinguishing feature being the heavy green door that faces the street.

Entrance to La Maison de Santé
© Entrée to Black Paris

La Maison de Santé - signage
© Entrée to Black Paris

A gate that serves as an ambulance entrance also faces rue de Plaisance.

 Ambulance entrance
© Entrée to Black Paris

Upon entering the facility, you walk past reception into a vast green space that is bordered by buildings on the left. You could easily get the impression that you're in a park and that the treatment facilities are "incidental."

View of buildings adjacent to the lawn
© Entrée to Black Paris

Unfortunately, I have no information about where Beauford's room(s) might have been located.

In-patient buildings
© Entrée to Black Paris

 A gazebo provides a covered space where patients and visitors can smoke.

Gazebo
© Entrée to Black Paris A net was set up for badminton.

Badminton net
© Entrée to Black Paris

Benches in a dense grove at the rear of the property provide space to relax while looking out onto private homes on rue de Coulmiers.

Grove at rear of property
© Entrée to Black Paris  

 Houses on rue de Coulmiers
© Entrée to Black Paris

A garden arbor was mostly bare of foliage, let alone flowers. I wished that I had visited in the spring so I could have seen it at its best.

 

  Garden arbor - side view
© Entrée to Black Paris

One magnificent yellow rose remained. It reminded me of the rose that Silver Wainhouse placed on Beauford's tombstone when she visited Thiais Cemetery and was inspired to write the play Amazing Grace Is Yellow.

Yellow rose
© Entrée to Black Paris  Because Beauford loved yellow roses, seeing this flower made me feel that my visit was complete.

Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black - Part 2

Dr. Arlene Keizer is Professor and Former Chairperson of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute in NYC. She is a scholar in the fields of literary and cultural studies who writes about the literature, lived experience, theory, and visual art of the African Diaspora.

Dr. Keizer graciously granted Les Amis this interview as a prelude to the release of Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black, her book of poems inspired by Beauford's life and work. In Part 2 of this blog post, she discusses several of Beauford's works that inspired her poetry.

Fraternal Light book cover
Cover art by Nell Painter

Les Amis:  In the panel discussion called “Red Summer Remembered: Cultural Trauma and Commemorative Art Practices” that you organized in 2019, you discussed three Beauford Delaney paintings in relation to the 1919 Knoxville Race Riot that took place during Red Summer.  In your Speaking of Marvels interview, you identify two Beauford Delaney paintings that inspired the poem “Terror in the Heart of Freedom.”  Please share a list of the paintings that inspired the poems in Fraternal Light and other areas of your work focused on Beauford.

AK:  Here is the list:

Untitled (Knoxville Landscape), 1922, watercolor on paper

Untitled (Knoxville Landscape)
(1922) Gouache on paper
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Knoxville Landscape, 1969, mixed media on paper

Harlem Blue, exhibited February 1949 (This is likely the same painting sold by Swann Auction Galleries as Untitled (Village Street Scene) in 2018.)

Dark Rapture (James Baldwin), 1941, oil on Masonite

Abstraction #12, 1963, oil on canvas

Moving Sunlight, 1965, oil on canvas

Moving Sunlight
(1965) Oil on canvas
Knoxville Museum of Art, 2018 acquisition
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Marian Anderson, 1965, oil on canvas

Portrait of a Young Musician, n.d., acrylic on canvas (The Studio Museum in Harlem owns this painting.)

Untitled, circa 1958, oil on canvas (This painting was acquired in 2022 by the Cleveland Museum of Art.)

Jean Genet, 1972, oil on canvas

Portrait of Walter Anderson, n.d., oil on canvas

 Beauford Delaney
Portrait of Walter Anderson
Date unknown
Oil, 130 x 97 cm.
 Photographer unknown.
Page 50 from Richard A. Long, Mary Schmidt Campbell,
James Baldwin, and Joseph Delaney,
Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective
(New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 1978).
Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same title,
organized by and presented at the Studio Museum in Harlem,
April 9—July 2, 1978
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

Head of a Poet, 1944, pastel on paper

Grèce, 1967, oil on canvas

Self-Portrait in a Paris Bath House, 1971, oil on canvas

Additionally, I've been inspired by many Delaney self-portraits and portraits of James Baldwin, many paintings with variations on the title “Portrait of a Man,” and portraits of Ahmed Bioud.

Colin Gravois (aka Portrait of a Man in Green)
31 7/8" x 25 1/2" / 81.0 x 64.8 cm
Image courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

 Les Amis:  Have you seen these works in person, or were you working solely from photographic images of them?

AK:  I’ve been lucky to see many of Delaney’s works in person because of recent shows, especially those at the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and the David Zwirner Gallery.  Some paintings I’ve seen only in printed or online reproductions. Seeing Untitled (c. 1958), Dark Rapture, and Rehearsal in a David Zwirner Gallery show curated by Hilton Als was crucial to the development of Fraternal Light.

Les Amis:  Are images of Beauford’s works included in Fraternal Light?

AK:  Instead of including Delaney’s works in Fraternal Light, I opted to feature works inspired by him.  I remain fascinated by the number of writers, visual artists, and musicians who drew inspiration from Delaney and his work, adding myself to their company.  Nell Painter, the renowned historian-turned-artist, allowed me to use one of her Delaney-inspired drawings on the cover of Fraternal Light, and I’m profoundly grateful.

Les Amis:  In the Speaking of Marvels interview, you state that after writing “Mandala,” the final poem of Fraternal Light, you felt that I had traveled as far you could “in the company of Delaney’s extraordinary body of work.”  Does this mean that you will no longer pursue scholarly research on him?

AK:  I would be delighted to continue contributing to projects related to Delaney, but my original research on his life and work has (mostly) come to an end.  It’s possible that I’ll write an essay about the process of researching his life/art and developing a poetry manuscript out of archival work, since I’ve been giving talks about this.  When the embargo on the letters between Delaney and Baldwin is lifted, I will return to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem to read every one of them!

Les Amis:  Is anyone “following in your footsteps” regarding researching Beauford?  Do you have or know of any graduate students who would like to extend or build upon your work?

AK:  At present, I’m not working with any graduate students who focus on African American art or poetry.

Les Amis:  Do the poems in Fraternal Light lend themselves to spoken word performance?

AK:  Yes! I’ve read some of the poems while giving talks on my research at Smith College and at the Schomburg, where I was a Scholar-in-Residence during the 2021-22 academic year.  I plan to read from Fraternal Light wherever I might be invited to do so.

Professor Arlene Keizer at the Schomburg Center
Image courtesy of Dr. Keizer

 Fraternal Light is scheduled for release on August 29, 2023.  It is currently available for pre-order HERE.

Read Part 1 of this post HERE.

 

Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black - Part 1

Dr. Arlene Keizer is Professor and Former Chairperson of the Department of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute in NYC.  She is a scholar in the fields of literary and cultural studies who writes about the literature, lived experience, theory, and visual art of the African Diaspora.

Dr. Keizer graciously granted Les Amis this interview as a prelude to the release of Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black, her book of poems inspired by Beauford's life and work.   In Part 1 of this blog post, she discusses how she came to know Beauford's work and why it inspires her.

Fraternal Light book cover
Cover art by Nell Painter

Les Amis: Congratulations on winning the 2022 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize! What inspired you to apply for this award?

AK: Thanks for your congratulations, and thanks for this question.  It’s very difficult to publish a first book of poetry, so most US-based poets who haven’t yet published a full collection enter contests established by independent and university presses and foundations dedicated to keeping poetry alive.  I submitted the manuscript of Fraternal Light to at least 50 contests or open-reading periods before it won the Wick First Book Prize.

Les Amis: When and under what circumstances did you first learn about Beauford Delaney?

AK: I’m a literary scholar by training, so I first learned about Delaney when I began studying the life and work of James Baldwin back in the late 1980s.  At that time, I thought of Delaney as a footnote in Baldwin’s narrative, so it was an enjoyable surprise when he took center stage in my imagination.

Les Amis: What is it about his life and/or work that inspires you?

AK: I am awed by Delaney’s artistic skill, generosity of spirit, and extraordinary resilience in the face of intense adversity.  I feel that his life and work can teach me (and others) how to endure the kinds of difficulties that he not only survived but often transcended.  He somehow pushed himself to create original, continually path-breaking art in spite of grinding poverty, anti-Black and homophobic discrimination and violence, and serious psychiatric problems.  And his work is radiant with the joy of existence.

Les Amis: In the interview you gave to Speaking of Marvels, you talk about “years of examining his [Beauford’s] art and reading his letters and excerpts from his journals.”  How many years have you been studying Beauford?

AK: I began doing serious research on Delaney’s life and work in 2018.

Les Amis: In reference to the above statement, describe the documents you discovered at the Beinecke Library at Yale and the Schomburg Center in NYC.

AK: To summarize a wealth of material: Most of the Delaney documents at the Schomburg and the Beinecke are letters Delaney wrote to friends and professional acquaintances.  Both archives also contain some letters that Delaney received from friends and colleagues.  I was surprised and delighted to find that the Schomburg also owns some Delaney drawings and paintings.

Head of a Poet
(1944) Pastel on paper
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Image courtesy of Arlene Keizer
© Estate of Beauford Delaney
by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire,
Court Appointed Administrator

The Beinecke purchased two drawings of Delaney by the illustrator Don Freeman, a close friend, and one of these drawings appears in Fraternal Light.  The Delaney-related materials I found most moving are David Leeming’s interviews with Delaney’s friends and relatives, including Baldwin and Bernard Hassell, which are housed at the Beinecke.

Les Amis: How did these documents inform your poems?

AK: As I wrote Fraternal Light, I was interested in learning as much as possible about Delaney’s character, his interior life, and his approach to art, and his letters to friends were illuminating.  It’s clear from what’s in the archives that Delaney derived emotional sustenance from writing letters and reading (and re-reading) the letters he received from friends and family.

Professor Arlene Keizer at the Schomburg Center
Image courtesy of Dr. Keizer

Fraternal Light is scheduled for release on August 29, 2023. It is currently available for pre-order HERE.

Come back next week to learn about specific Beauford Delaney works that inspired Dr. Keizer's poetry.