Hannah Smith (philanthropist) - The 1920s

The 1920s

In the 1920s Smith struck out on her own, making a crusading passion her defining characteristic. With connections to Gertrude Stein through Carey Thomas, Smith soon became enamored of the circle of American avant-gardists in Paris at this time. Stein and Alice B. Toklas, while holding Carey Thomas in highest regard, appear to have held reservations about the motives of the younger Smith. When a prized recipe book went missing, suspicion fell on Smith.

But Smith’s exuberant immersion in Paris social life and her family fortune made life less uncomfortable for many artists, composers, and intellectuals. Through previous Philadelphia connections to pianist Constantine von Sternberg and the patron Mary Louise Curtis Bok, Smith saw that composer George Antheil was supported to write his most famous work, the “Ballet Mécanique” in 1924.

Under the influence of Antheil and Francis Picabia, among others, Smith became passionately interested in the possibilities of electronic and mechanical arts. In 1927 she acquired an early electronic instrument, the a etherphone, from Leon (Lev) Theremin. She was also attending various Movement Demonstrations at Gurdjieff’s Paris institute at this time. Experimentation with sound and drama using the prototype aetherphone ended abruptly with a nasty electric shock. After consultations with Gurdjieff and others, she concluded she would return her focus to promoting the works of others.

Her peripatetic partner in these activities was an American art student, Alexina “Teeny” Sattler (later Matisse, and later Duchamp). Unfortunately this exuberant friendship was strained when “Teeny” married Pierre Matisse in 1929, rather against Smith’s advice.

Lou Andreas-Salomé was, perhaps more than anyone else, a role model. On a short stay in Paris she introduced Smith to the works of both Freud and Nietzsche. Andreas-Salomé left a number of unsent letters to Freud at Smith’s home. Smith kept them, but never opened them.