England's Gauguin                                    7

Alphonse Mucha was Stephen's first real master. At the time
Mucha's posters of Sarah Bernhardt were all over Paris; however, his
studio was not well attended. Stephen soon corrected this matter by
acting as "official Massier" and attracting a sufficient number of stu¬
dents for the school to remain open. Mucha was a friend of Gauguin
and lent him studio space to review his work while preparing for his
first South Sea exhibition. Many years later Stephen met Mucha at
an exhibition in New York, and Mucha traveled with Stephen to the
Bronx to view Stephen's work on the windows of St. Anselm's
Church. It was Mucha who first interested Stephen in the works of
Gauguin, thereby planting a seed which would eventually lead
Stephen to Dominica,

After receiving a sudden windfall of £40 from England, Stephen
bought a camera and photographic equipment. He found that he had
a talent for photography Inspired by the recently published portraits
of famous French artists by Edward Steichen, Stephen managed to
get an introduction to Rodin, A friendship developed between
Stephen and Rodin, who encouraged Stephen to photograph many
of his small bronzes against assorted backgrounds and with various
lighting. To Stephen's surprise many of the prints which he consid¬
ered to be failures, Rodin would admire and proclaim "C'est mieux
que Stikken fsic]," For two years Stephen saw a lot of Rodin, The
little villa in which Rodin lived was in a chronic state of disorder,
although Rodin knew where every piece of art was. ' 'Every bed in the
house hid piles of etchings, lithographs and watercolors," writes
Stephen. "Rodin's own bedroom was the most tidily arranged room
in the house, tidy, I suppose, chiefly because it was almost empty.
Two Monets hung upon the wall and one Carriere, a table, a chair, a
wash stand and a simple iron bed with a little table beside it upon
which rested his bible—well, it wasn't exacdy a bible, it was Richard's
Anatomy—the only book, in my belief that Rodin ever read assidu¬
ously and with interest." Stephen was sympathetic and understand¬
ing when it came to Rodin's relationship with Madam Rosa, the art¬
ist's housekeeper; "I don't think it ever occurred to Rodin that