Yearn, Legs
Clasp, Arms
give, Womind, ‘thout Headbend
yeuthanasElate past Pain!
Lincoln Gillespie Jr., Monograph for “Evolove Series,” 1928
the french pyrenees
In August 1925, after years of frenzied painting, Weston nearly died from the removal of a diseased kidney. Defying doctors who told them to live in an environment less rigorous than the Adirondack wilderness, Harold and Faith settled in an ancient Catalan farmhouse high in the Pyrenees mountains, cooking rabbit over the hearth and making sausage with the villagers. Weston’s paintings, saturated with Europe’s light and color, were shipped to the Montross Gallery in New York City for exhibition, and a Latin Quarter gallery in Paris mounted a solo show for the expatriot. Periodic stays in Paris brought Harold and Faith into its throbbing literary and artistic life.
One fall in Giens, freely cavorting on the Mediterranean, the Westons shared a cottage with dancer friends. In a flush of rapid-fire watercolors, Weston captured body rhythms that he crystallized into seven etchings—the Love Series.