A wonderful letter written in 1941 to the artist Walt Kuhn, who apparently had given Alice some art lessons at some time. She talks about taking up painting again. Alice Warder Garrett (1877-1952) American patron, art philanthropist. Alice's involvement in the arts began at an early age and continued throughout her life. She took voice lessons, and gave formal vocal performances throughout her life. She was also actively interested in painting and drawing, music, theater, architecture, and writing. During her life she was acquainted with many of the leading artists of the time including Ignacio Zuloaga, Leon Bakst, Edith Wharton, Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Evergreen Mansion in Baltimore, where she and her husband lived, is decorated with an extensive collection of paintings that Alice collected, including works by Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, and Amedeo Modigliani. Alice was involved in philanthropic works that strove for a greater presence and accessibility to the arts in America. Alice sat on the board for the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Baltimore Society of the Friends of Art. She was heavily involved in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and she frequently gave lectures on art and history. Her papers are in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library, at The Johns Hopkins University. During the First World War, Alice volunteered at several field hospitals and saw first hand the brutalities of war. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover selected Alice's husband to be Ambassador to Italy. Alice's involvement in the arts began at an early age and continued throughout her life. In 1914, Bakst was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1922, Bakst broke off his relationship with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. During this year, he visited Baltimore and, specifically Evergreen House - the residence of his friend and patron, art philanthropist Alice Warder Garrett (1877ñ1952). Having met in Paris in 1914, when Mrs. Garrett was accompanying her diplomat husband in Europe, Bakst soon depended upon his then new American friend as both a confidante and agent. Alice Garrett became Bakst's representative in the United States upon her return home in 1920, organizing two exhibitions of the artist's work at New York's Knoedler Gallery, as well as subsequent traveling shows. When in Baltimore, Bakst re-designed the dining room of Evergreen into a shocking acidic yellow and 'Chinese' red confection. The artist subsequently went on to transform the house's small c. 1885 gymnasium into a colorfully Modernist private theatre, which is currently believed to be the only extant private theatre designed by Bakst.

VG