Charis Wilson
Encyclopedia
Helen Charis Wilson most widely known as a subject of Edward Weston
's photographs, was a model and writer.
and Helen Charis Cooke Wilson. Her father wrote popular fiction, including the bestselling novel Ruggles of Red Gap
, which was later made into a movie. Income from his writing provided a relatively high standard of living for the time, and in 1910 he built a 12-room house near Carmel, California. Two years later, when he was 45, he married Cooke, who grew up in Carmel. She was 16.
Their first child, Leon, was born in 1913 and was followed a year later by their daughter, whom they named after her mother. Wilson dropped her first name as a young girl and became known as Charis (ˈkɛərɨs), which means 'Grace' in Greek. Her family's relative wealth and status provided her with a leisurely childhood, and she spent many of her summers swimming at the beach at Carmel and often sunbathing without a swim suit. She developed a reputation at school as an boisterous free-thinker for doing such things as starting a "self-control" club in grade school in which initiates had to lie in a tub filled with frigid water. Her behavior led to her being expelled from the private Branson School in the eighth grade, and she spent the next two years at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon
.
During this time her parents separated, and from then she was cared for primarily by her grandmother and her great aunt, who were both writers and part of the literary scene of San Francisco. She returned to Carmel and finished high school with her brother. While still in high school she met the famous art collectors Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg, who lived nearby. She visited their home often and was captivated by their substantial collection of modern paintings and sculptures. Walter Arensberg encouraged her by asking for her opinions about art and by engaging her in word play and intellectual puzzles and conundrums. She said later that Arensberg was entirely responsible for her art education.
Her parents divorced when she was 12, and although she was still in school she rarely saw either one of them. She often stayed with her grandmother or great aunt. According to Wilson, Ruth Catlin, founder of the Catlin Gabel School, came to see her and convinced her that she was too bright to stay in Carmel. The two determined she should go back to the Catlin Gabel School to complete her senior year and then go on to Sarah Lawrence College
. Her father approved of her returning to Portland to finish high school, but although she won a full scholarship to Sarah Lawrence he refused to allow her to go.
With no other course available to her Wilson went back and forth between San Francisco and Carmel, enrolling in and then dropping out of secretarial school. Due to her father's lack of belief in her, her self-esteem plummeted. She moved into the attic of a painter friend and had a series of love affairs that led to an unwanted pregnancy. Her mother arranged for an abortion, which led her "to resolve on chastity as a new way of life." She wrote that for a while she was driven by "a kind of angry despair…[and was] aware even at the time that I was in bad shape and moving toward worse." It was then that her life changed.
At the time Weston was married, but his wife, Flora Chandler Weston, was living in Los Angeles. In Carmel Weston was sharing his home with Sonya Noskowiak
, a photographer in her own right but also Weston's model and lover. Wilson stopped by Weston's studio a few days later, only to find that Weston had gone to Los Angeles on business. Noskowiak welcomed her, brought out many of Weston's prints for viewing and finally asked her if she would be interested in modeling for Weston. On April 22, 1934, Wilson posed for the first of what would be hundreds of photographs, both nude and clothed.
After the second modeling session, Weston wrote in his daybooks "a new love come into my life…one which, I believe, will stand the test of time." Posing for Weston elevated Wilson's feelings for him far beyond her initial ardor. She wrote "During photographic sessions, Edward made a model feel totally aware of herself. It was beyond exhibitionism
or narcissism
, it was more like a state of induced hypnosis, or of meditation." She became completely enamored of Weston, and he of her. Within a few months time they were lovers. Noskowiak, who was still living with Weston at the time, seemed to be aware of their relationship but might have tolerated it in the hopes that it would not last.
After the initial modeling sessions Weston became completely captivated by Wilson. He made 31 photographs of her nude form in 1934 alone, each laboriously visualized and captured with his 4 X 5 Graflex camera, then hand developed and printed in his small darkroom. For the next two years she was his exclusive model.
In mid-1935 Weston moved to Los Angeles for a project funded by the Works Progress Administration
, and he asked Wilson to live with him there. His youngest sons, Neil and Cole, alternately lived with them and with their mother. His older sons, Brett and Chandler (who were also a few years older than Wilson), had opened a photography studio in the area, and Weston used it as a base of operations for his project.
During this same period Weston switched from a 4 X 5 camera to an 8 X 10 view camera. Using the larger camera he made a series of nudes of Wilson, beginning with an iconic study of her in the doorway of their home (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)
). Later, he made his most graphic photos of her at Oceano Dunes, which was then a isolated area of massive sand dunes. Wilson said she found the place "magical" and had no trouble shedding any last semblances of inhibition that might have remained. She recalled that Weston was concentrating on photographing the landscape, when she took off her clothes and rolled down the sand dunes. He immediately focused his camera on her, capturing both the spontaneity of her freedom and her unabashedly sensual form. These photos, which are some of Weston's most recognized images, "mark the climax of Weston's quest for a modern figurative style."
In 1937 Weston applied for and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
, the first ever award to a photographer. Wilson is known to have been the author of the application, a four-page narrative, although Weston signed it as his own. The Fellowship provided a stipend of $2,000, and with it they began traveling around the West. Together they traveled 16,697 miles in 187 days.
At the end of the year Weston finally divorced his wife, Flora, after 16 years of separation.
The following year the Guggenheim Fellowship was renewed, and Weston and Wilson settled down to printing and cataloging much of his work. They moved to a new home on Wildcat Hill near Carmel, where in a separate building Wilson finally had a place of her own to write. She began a narrative of her travels with Weston, which was published the next year as Seeing California with Edward Weston.
On April 24, 1939, Wilson and Weston were married in Elk, California. Soon after she began writing the text for their next and perhaps most famous book, California and the West, which was published in 1940. In 1941 Weston was asked to take photos for a new edition of Walt Whitman
's Leaves of Grass
. Once again Wilson and Weston traveled around the country while he took photographs for the Whitman book.
It was during this trip that Wilson and Weston had begun to drift apart. He continued to be fascinated with younger women and he devoted more and more time to his photography at the expense of their relationship. Wilson, in turn, was growing tired of putting his interests first. She wanted to write more, and she wanted to connect with other people.
She became involved in documenting labor struggles in Northern California, and during her research she met a labor activist named Noel Harris. The two became romantically involved, and Wilson decided it was finally time to break from Weston. On December 13, 1946, she filed divorce papers. Weston waived his right to object, and he casually wrote to Beaumont Newhall
"Charis is in Reno getting a divorce. Cole in L.A. getting new Chevrolet."
After the separation from Weston, Wilson was occupied among others as a union secretary and creative writing
teacher. In 1977 Wilson wrote the introduction for a book of photographs, Edward Weston Nudes, which is now sought after by collectors. In 2007 she was the subject of a documentary, Eloquent Nude. Her memoir, Through Another Lens, written with Wendy Madar, was published in 1999.
At the time of her death she and her daughter, Rachel, were staying at the home of poet Joseph Stroud
.
Edward Weston
Edward Henry Weston was a 20th century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers…" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course of his forty-year career Weston photographed an increasingly expansive set of...
's photographs, was a model and writer.
Early life
Wilson was born in San Francisco, the daughter of Harry Leon WilsonHarry Leon Wilson
Harry Leon Wilson was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels, Ruggles of Red Gap and Merton of the Movies. His novel, Bunker Bean helped popularize the term flapper.-Biography:...
and Helen Charis Cooke Wilson. Her father wrote popular fiction, including the bestselling novel Ruggles of Red Gap
Ruggles of Red Gap
Ruggles of Red Gap was serialized beginning December 26, 1914 in the Saturday Evening Post and became a best selling novel in 1915 by Harry Leon Wilson, adapted for the Broadway stage as a musical the same year, and made into a movie several times, most famously in 1935.In the comedy Western film...
, which was later made into a movie. Income from his writing provided a relatively high standard of living for the time, and in 1910 he built a 12-room house near Carmel, California. Two years later, when he was 45, he married Cooke, who grew up in Carmel. She was 16.
Their first child, Leon, was born in 1913 and was followed a year later by their daughter, whom they named after her mother. Wilson dropped her first name as a young girl and became known as Charis (ˈkɛərɨs), which means 'Grace' in Greek. Her family's relative wealth and status provided her with a leisurely childhood, and she spent many of her summers swimming at the beach at Carmel and often sunbathing without a swim suit. She developed a reputation at school as an boisterous free-thinker for doing such things as starting a "self-control" club in grade school in which initiates had to lie in a tub filled with frigid water. Her behavior led to her being expelled from the private Branson School in the eighth grade, and she spent the next two years at the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
.
During this time her parents separated, and from then she was cared for primarily by her grandmother and her great aunt, who were both writers and part of the literary scene of San Francisco. She returned to Carmel and finished high school with her brother. While still in high school she met the famous art collectors Louise and Walter Conrad Arensberg, who lived nearby. She visited their home often and was captivated by their substantial collection of modern paintings and sculptures. Walter Arensberg encouraged her by asking for her opinions about art and by engaging her in word play and intellectual puzzles and conundrums. She said later that Arensberg was entirely responsible for her art education.
Her parents divorced when she was 12, and although she was still in school she rarely saw either one of them. She often stayed with her grandmother or great aunt. According to Wilson, Ruth Catlin, founder of the Catlin Gabel School, came to see her and convinced her that she was too bright to stay in Carmel. The two determined she should go back to the Catlin Gabel School to complete her senior year and then go on to Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
. Her father approved of her returning to Portland to finish high school, but although she won a full scholarship to Sarah Lawrence he refused to allow her to go.
With no other course available to her Wilson went back and forth between San Francisco and Carmel, enrolling in and then dropping out of secretarial school. Due to her father's lack of belief in her, her self-esteem plummeted. She moved into the attic of a painter friend and had a series of love affairs that led to an unwanted pregnancy. Her mother arranged for an abortion, which led her "to resolve on chastity as a new way of life." She wrote that for a while she was driven by "a kind of angry despair…[and was] aware even at the time that I was in bad shape and moving toward worse." It was then that her life changed.
Her years with Weston
Weston wrote that at a concert in December 1933 or January 1934 he saw "this tall, beautiful girl, with fine proportioned body, intelligent face, well-freckled, blue eyes, golden brown hair to shoulders – and had to meet." Her brother, Leon, who had met Weston while Wilson was in Portland, introduced the two. Wilson said "For anyone interested in statistics – I wasn't – he was 48 years old and I had just turned 20. What was important to me was the sight of someone who quite evidently was twice as alive as anyone else in the room, and whose eyes most likely saw twice as much as anyone else's did."At the time Weston was married, but his wife, Flora Chandler Weston, was living in Los Angeles. In Carmel Weston was sharing his home with Sonya Noskowiak
Sonya noskowiak
Sonya Noskowiak was an American photographer and member of the famous San Francisco photography collective Group f/64 that included Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.-Life:...
, a photographer in her own right but also Weston's model and lover. Wilson stopped by Weston's studio a few days later, only to find that Weston had gone to Los Angeles on business. Noskowiak welcomed her, brought out many of Weston's prints for viewing and finally asked her if she would be interested in modeling for Weston. On April 22, 1934, Wilson posed for the first of what would be hundreds of photographs, both nude and clothed.
After the second modeling session, Weston wrote in his daybooks "a new love come into my life…one which, I believe, will stand the test of time." Posing for Weston elevated Wilson's feelings for him far beyond her initial ardor. She wrote "During photographic sessions, Edward made a model feel totally aware of herself. It was beyond exhibitionism
Exhibitionism
Exhibitionism refers to a desire or compulsion to expose parts of one's body – specifically the genitals or buttocks of a man or woman, or the breasts of a woman – in a public or semi-public circumstance, in crowds or groups of friends or acquaintances, or to strangers...
or narcissism
Narcissism
Narcissism is a term with a wide range of meanings, depending on whether it is used to describe a central concept of psychoanalytic theory, a mental illness, a social or cultural problem, or simply a personality trait...
, it was more like a state of induced hypnosis, or of meditation." She became completely enamored of Weston, and he of her. Within a few months time they were lovers. Noskowiak, who was still living with Weston at the time, seemed to be aware of their relationship but might have tolerated it in the hopes that it would not last.
After the initial modeling sessions Weston became completely captivated by Wilson. He made 31 photographs of her nude form in 1934 alone, each laboriously visualized and captured with his 4 X 5 Graflex camera, then hand developed and printed in his small darkroom. For the next two years she was his exclusive model.
In mid-1935 Weston moved to Los Angeles for a project funded by the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
, and he asked Wilson to live with him there. His youngest sons, Neil and Cole, alternately lived with them and with their mother. His older sons, Brett and Chandler (who were also a few years older than Wilson), had opened a photography studio in the area, and Weston used it as a base of operations for his project.
During this same period Weston switched from a 4 X 5 camera to an 8 X 10 view camera. Using the larger camera he made a series of nudes of Wilson, beginning with an iconic study of her in the doorway of their home (Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)
Nude (Charis, Santa Monica)
Nude is a photograph taken by Edward Weston in 1936. It shows an apparently nude woman with her arms wrapped around her legs while she sits on a blanket in bright sunlight against a darkened doorway...
). Later, he made his most graphic photos of her at Oceano Dunes, which was then a isolated area of massive sand dunes. Wilson said she found the place "magical" and had no trouble shedding any last semblances of inhibition that might have remained. She recalled that Weston was concentrating on photographing the landscape, when she took off her clothes and rolled down the sand dunes. He immediately focused his camera on her, capturing both the spontaneity of her freedom and her unabashedly sensual form. These photos, which are some of Weston's most recognized images, "mark the climax of Weston's quest for a modern figurative style."
In 1937 Weston applied for and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, the first ever award to a photographer. Wilson is known to have been the author of the application, a four-page narrative, although Weston signed it as his own. The Fellowship provided a stipend of $2,000, and with it they began traveling around the West. Together they traveled 16,697 miles in 187 days.
At the end of the year Weston finally divorced his wife, Flora, after 16 years of separation.
The following year the Guggenheim Fellowship was renewed, and Weston and Wilson settled down to printing and cataloging much of his work. They moved to a new home on Wildcat Hill near Carmel, where in a separate building Wilson finally had a place of her own to write. She began a narrative of her travels with Weston, which was published the next year as Seeing California with Edward Weston.
On April 24, 1939, Wilson and Weston were married in Elk, California. Soon after she began writing the text for their next and perhaps most famous book, California and the West, which was published in 1940. In 1941 Weston was asked to take photos for a new edition of Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
's Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman . Though the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death...
. Once again Wilson and Weston traveled around the country while he took photographs for the Whitman book.
It was during this trip that Wilson and Weston had begun to drift apart. He continued to be fascinated with younger women and he devoted more and more time to his photography at the expense of their relationship. Wilson, in turn, was growing tired of putting his interests first. She wanted to write more, and she wanted to connect with other people.
She became involved in documenting labor struggles in Northern California, and during her research she met a labor activist named Noel Harris. The two became romantically involved, and Wilson decided it was finally time to break from Weston. On December 13, 1946, she filed divorce papers. Weston waived his right to object, and he casually wrote to Beaumont Newhall
Beaumont Newhall
Beaumont Newhall was an influential curator, art historian, writer, and photographer. His The History of Photography remains one of the most significant accounts in the field and has become a classic photo history textbook...
"Charis is in Reno getting a divorce. Cole in L.A. getting new Chevrolet."
Later life
Just one day after her divorce from Weston was finalized, Wilson married Harris. They had two daughters, one of whom was murdered in Scotland in 1967. That same year Harris and Wilson divorced. She moved to Santa Cruz and lived close to her other daughter Rachel Fern Harris for the rest of her life.After the separation from Weston, Wilson was occupied among others as a union secretary and creative writing
Creative writing
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems...
teacher. In 1977 Wilson wrote the introduction for a book of photographs, Edward Weston Nudes, which is now sought after by collectors. In 2007 she was the subject of a documentary, Eloquent Nude. Her memoir, Through Another Lens, written with Wendy Madar, was published in 1999.
At the time of her death she and her daughter, Rachel, were staying at the home of poet Joseph Stroud
Joseph Stroud (poet)
Joseph Stroud, is an American poet.-Life:He was educated at the University of San Francisco, California State University at Los Angeles, and San Francisco State University...
.