League of Nations Portraits
“I believe there exists, spiritually, a great suspension bridge, ‘made without hands, eternal, in the heavens,’ a bridge connecting Philadelphia, Penn’s city of Brotherly Love,—and the city of Geneva,” wrote Violet Oakley.1 Although the United States had officially rejected membership in the League of Nations, Oakley remained committed to the idea of international government. Believing that the league was the fulfillment of William Penn’s vision of a “Parliament of Nations” in 1693, she felt compelled to be a part of and to record the momentous development in world history on behalf of the United States. To obtain permission to attend the league, she asked Pennsylvania Governor Gifford Pinchot to present a copy of her portfolio The Holy Experiment: A Message to the World from Pennsylvania (1922) to the league’s library to serve as an introduction.2 With The Holy Experiment as her calling card, she gained admittance to the eighth, ninth, and tenth sessions of the assembly.
Accompanied by Edith Emerson, she set up a studio in an apartment in Geneva, where she drew portraits of the international community assembled there from 1927 to 1929. Twenty-five delegates agreed to pose for Oakley as well as sixteen members of the Secretariat and International Labor Office, and thirteen observers and visitors. The artist’s mastery of drawing made it possible for her to quickly render an expressive likeness with combinations of red, black, and white chalk on toned paper. In her eyes the diversity of delegates from all over the world formed a beautiful human tapestry: “To the Imaginative Observer they seemed to be weaving an intricate and gorgeous pattern made up of all the colours of the world, and of all the creeds.”3
Oakley’s League of Nations portraits were exhibited in Geneva, Florence, London, Rome, and Toronto and in cities on the East Coast of the United States. In 1930, Emerson and Oakley showed their “Geneva Drawings” together at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. After having the delegate portraits reproduced as collotypes, Oakley donated the originals to the Library of the League of Nations.4 In 1933, she published the collotypes and her Journal of Geneva, with reproductions of her murals in the Supreme Court Chamber in the portfolio Law Triumphant: Containing the Opening of the Book of the Law and The Miracle of Geneva.
1 The internal quote is from 2 Corinthians 5:1. Violet Oakley, Law Triumphant: Containing the Opening of the Book of the Law and the Miracle of Geneva (Philadelphia: privately printed, 1933): 14. Oakley’s metaphor corresponded to the construction of the suspension bridge across the Delaware River from 1922 to 1926. Supervised by architect Paul Cret, the concept was originally sketched by Pennsylvania Capitol architect Joseph M. Huston in 1913.
2 Ibid. 45. Gifford Pinchot, a Republican and a Progressive, was governor of Pennsylvania from 1923 to 1927 and 1931 to 1935.
3 Ibid. 40.
4 The Geneva Drawings exhibitions were held at Galerie Moos, Geneva, 15 Sept. – 2 Oct., 1928; The Lyceum Club, Florence, Italy, June, 1929; American Women’s Club, London, 18-22 July, 1929; The Art Alliance, Philadelphia, January, 1930;Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, February, 1930;The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., April, 1930; Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada, May, 1930; Grace Horne’s Gallery, Boston, 4-18 June, 1930; Vassar College, August, 1930; Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, Delaware, 18-28 Oct., 1930; Yale University, 19-31 January, 1931; Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts, New York, February, 1932;Palm Beach Art Center, Florida, 25 Feb. – 5 Mar., 1936; Palazzo Antici Matti, Rome, Italy, 1937.
Works in Woodmere’s Collection
!["Japan listens…and talks with Switzerland" [delegates from Japan and Switzerland to the League of Nations]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e23c3ba725cb8a647ac_voe-art-6171-wide-image-oakley-2018-1-918-crop.avif)
![Bust portraits of Joseph Paul-Boncour [addressing the Assembly of the League of Nations]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e22c09c81f5eb724b35_voe-art-6169-art-image-oakley-2018-1-916-crop.avif)
![Study for the "Three Fates" (American visitors to the League of Nations, including Anna Pennypacker [Mrs. Percy Pennypacker]](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e23f05712dc90f783bf_voe-art-6174-art-image-oakley-2018-1-926-crop.avif)
![Illustration study detail of "[Drafting of the Covenant of] A League of Nations…" for Christian Science Monitor (May 1934)](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e1781185226c1adbfc2_voe-art-6105-wide-image-oakley-2018-1-1468-crop.avif)
!["Australia rises to say..." [Study of man standing before a group of men seated around table] at League of Nations](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e1df081acfbee058642_voe-art-6136-art-image-oakley-2018-1-610-crop.avif)
![Portrait head study of Alexandra Kollontai and a study of "International Solidarity" [circle of men embracing] with thumbnail sketch of head in profile, at League of Nations](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d9e1c2f8c40e9ced4921f_voe-art-6133-wide-image-oakley-2018-1-607-crop.avif)
Works in Other Collections
Historical Images
The 10th annual session of the League of Nations meets in Geneva, Switzerland, on January 15, 1930. AP (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1919/01/the-idea-of-a-league-of-nations/306270/)
Delegates attending a League of Nations meeting, c. 1930 (Central Press/Hulton Archives/Getty Images, https://www.britannica.com/topic/League-of-Nations/images-videos)
The League of Nations: A Pictorial Survey (League Secretariat, League of Nations, Geneva. Information Section, 1925 and 1928, https://www.wdl.org/en/item/11589/view/1/1/)
Chinese delegate addresses the League of Nations concerning the Manchurian Crisis in 1932, thirteenth ordinary session of the Assembly, Geneva (Bibliothèque nationale de France, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sesi%C3%B3nDeLaSociedadDeNacionesSobreManchuria1932.jpeg) Photograph by Robert Sennecke
The official opening of the League of Nations, 12 November 1920 (National Library of Norway, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34364618)
League of Nations Conference, Geneva, Switzerland, September 1923 (Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, https://www.thoughtco.com/the-league-of-nations-1435400)
The Persian delegation to the League of Nations Geneva, 1932 or 1933 (http://www.hakimi.site/album/abolhassan/league.htm)
Related Works in Woodmere’s Collection
Law Triumphant: The Opening of the Book of the Law and the Miracle of Geneva [Philadelphia, 1933], by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum)
Study for poster of joint exhibition of League of Nations portraits by Violet Oakley and recent European work by Edith Emerson, Art Alliance, Philadelphia, 1930, designed by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Jet d'Eau, Geneva, c. 1927-29, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
"Swan Cloud" Mountains, Night, Geneva, 1927, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Castle Courtyard, Topoľčianky (Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk), 1928, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Study of sky and mountains over Lake Geneva, c. 1927-28, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Study for the "Drafting of the Covenant of the League of Nations" mural within an architectural setting, date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Sketch of the "Drafting of the Covenant of the League of Nations" mural, date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Study of Jet d'Eau, Geneva, c. 1927-29, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Study of Mont Blanc from Geneva, c. 1927-29, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Study of Lake Geneva, 1927, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Landscape with Cathedral of St. Pierre, Geneva, c. 1927-29, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)
Christ at Geneva [Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1937], a brochure designed by Violet Oakley to publicize her mural painting "Christ at Geneva" (Woodmere Art Museum)
La présence divine à la Société des Nations/Divine presence at the League of Nations [Geneva: Albert Kundig, 1937], a brochure designed by Violet Oakley to publicize her mural painting "Christ at Geneva," now retitled "Divine presence at the League of Nations" (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of Mr. Charles N. H. Dodge and Mrs. Pierre G. Fraley, 1975)
More from
Portraits
![Beatrice Harrison, "The Lady of the Nightingales" [Woman with Cello], date unknown, by Violet Oakley (Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2015)](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/68961b6b3189b29172d19dc9/691d4dd7ae7c6fcb2a2eac7e_oakley_2018.1.1571-1920x1920-optmized.avif)
