“Marmont Studio”
by Pablo Capra
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| "Marmont Studio" by Laura Way Mathiesen, 1933, c/o Justina Judge-Stevenson |
A woman with red hair and “dancing brown eyes,” Laura Way Mathiesen (1876-1966) opened Marmont Studio to sell her paintings in the first hairpin turn on the Topanga road on June 7, 1924. She wrote to her friends about it on stationery printed with an engraving of her studio and cabin.
It is really a most wonderful location for I have at all times the variety of beach, rocky shore, palisades, mountain, cañon, or deep woods. In addition to this, all the world passes by my door. Sundays the traffic is almost intolerable. One day we counted sixty cars in ten minutes going in one direction but on other days it is not so bad.
I wish you could see some of my work at the present time. I feel sure that it is getting better and better and I am almost surprised myself some of the time with my work on waves and rocks and ocean subjects, for I have so small a background of ocean experience. When first I tried it I felt really bewildered at the heaving, tumbling mass, but almost all the sketches I made that first week have been sold so I must have done tolerably well.
And so the little studio idea came to me….
—“Former Decatur Woman Has Mountain Studio,” The Decatur Review, 1924-09-07
Marmont was probably Laura’s wordplay on Montmartre, the famous artists neighborhood in Paris. The name also combines Spanish words for “ocean” and “mountain,” evoking the studio’s location, and the main subjects of Laura’s paintings. For what it’s worth, Marmont Studio predated Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by five years. The “primitive and rough little house” in the Brookside neighborhood catered to weekend tourists, but was popular with locals as well.
Marmont Studio, home of Mrs. Laura W. Mathiesen, well known California artist, is a gathering place for artists. Here on Sundays, particularly, they drop in to discuss their work, and to view Mrs. Mathiesen’s paintings.
—“Topanga Briefs,” Evening Outlook, 1938-10-08
The Marmont Studio sign on the road read, “Painting and Pedigreed Pups,” because Laura also ran a dog-breeding business there.
If you dislike dogs, stay away from the Marmont studio, for some of the most charming wire-haired fox terrier puppies you ever saw are apt to enter informally at any moment.
—“Wayside Studio Welcomes Rich Man, Poor Man, Child or Ancient to Its Doors,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 1928-03-04
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| A local landscape painted by Laura Way Mathiesen, c/o Justina Judge-Stevenson |
Laura’s husband James L. Mathiesen (1879-1936) kept bees in the side canyon off the hairpin turn, and Laura painted designs on his honey-jar lids. When he became invalid for unknown reasons in the 1930s, she coped with the help of boarders like her sister Lucile Way (1877-1966), James’s widowed mother Anna Mathiesen (b.1855), and a widowed clairvoyant named Frances Carre (1867-1963), whose “gift of vision was internationally known.” Frances was a preacher of the Bahá’í Faith, a Middle-Eastern religion that treats all major religions as one. Her son Earl Carre (1891-1943) also lived in the neighborhood with his wife and four children.
Laura was assisted by another mysterious character in taking over James’s bee business.
Just now I am interested in bee keeping, having about 60 hives which I am working with a most unusual partner, an exiled Russian Cossack. He is a man of many contradictions, who as a young boy entered the World war. The Russian revolution saw his property swept away, his family scattered. He is keenly appreciative of art, music, literature, speaks several languages, knows bees in a most scientific way….
—“Russian Cossack Helps Artist in Her Bee Farming,” The Decatur Herald, 1933-03-21
Laura herself was a person of many contradictions. She was an extrovert, but never painted people. She was known for her landscapes, but “her seascapes are even better.” Her colors were “strong, yet restrained.” Her style was between old and new.
She is not a modernist in the accepted sense of the word, but she is decidedly not of the old school, and never loses her effects in overabundance of detail. She is quite willing to leave the individual leaf and blade to the imagination, though she seldom goes in for extremely broad effects.…
—“Wayside Studio Welcomes Rich Man, Poor Man, Child or Ancient to Its Doors,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 1928-03-04
Laura was sure of her skill, yet she spent all her free time trying to improve: traveling to scenic places to paint, taking more art classes, and mentoring under famous painters like Walter Marshall Clute (1870-1915), Leonard Ochtman (1854-1935), and Frederick Oakes Sylvester (1869-1915).
My work might be equal to the best of the California artists… an [George] Inness or a [Thomas] Moran or a William Wendt might be in your midst….
—“Letters to the Editor,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 1926-10-11
She was an elitist in her opinion that artists need formal art training, but egalitarian when it came to how art should be appreciated.
On the theory that all people should have an opportunity to see and enjoy art for the asking, Laura Way Mathiesen has placed her rustic studio on the main highway in Topanga canyon, and the boy or girl on a hike into the wilds, the workman on the road, and even the passing vagrant are as welcome to come and enjoy her paintings as is the rich dowager who orders her chauffeur to park the shining sedan at the side of the road.
Mrs. Mathiesen would rather see many of her paintings sold to poor people for small sums than to sell a few at prices asked by other artists. She paints because she loves to paint, and she wants the world to share in her own joy in her work.…
[She] has since made literally hundreds of landscapes of Southern California scenes… has exhibited in many Southern California galleries, but none of her paintings has ever been on display at an art dealer’s store. She feels that this would make the price too high, and says that she will never sell in that manner.
—“Wayside Studio Welcomes Rich Man, Poor Man, Child or Ancient to Its Doors,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 1928-03-04
Even though Laura shunned the commercial art world, she complained about being overlooked. Meanwhile, she was widely admired, and became the vice president of the Santa Monica Art Association.
Mrs. Mathieson [sic] is a painter in oils who has won much praise for her… [l]andscapes of beach scenes, beautiful canyon spots and ocean views.…
—“Art Club Holds Usual Session in Canyon Home,” Santa Monica Evening Outlook, 1926-05-24
Laura experienced setbacks when James died in 1936, and a brush fire burned down Marmont Studio in 1938, along with hundreds of homes in the Santa Monica Mountains.
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| Laura Way, undated, c/o Justina Judge-Stevenson |
Laura’s journey began in Northfield, MN, where she was born Laura Rogers Way in 1876. Her grandfather had settled there after making a fortune in the California Gold Rush, and may have inspired her fascination with the West. She graduated in Fine Arts from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY in 1904. Afterwards, she worked as a Supervisor of Drawing (instructing both teachers and students) in public school systems in La Crosse, WI; Decatur, IL; Colorado Springs, CO; Butte, MT; and Oxnard, CA. Her biggest trip was to Europe, where she spent the summer of 1908 traveling from Scotland to Italy, covering long distances on foot.
Wherever Laura lived, she was at the center of society and the arts community. She was especially active in Decatur, where she painted sets for school plays, made shadow puppets for parties, judged baby contests, and gave talks on subjects like “Good Taste in Choice of Home Decorations and Furniture.” She only lived there from 1905-1912, but she left such an impression that Decatur newspapers continued to write about her for decades, publishing some of the best accounts of her later life in Topanga.
Another important time for Laura was 1917-1922 in Butte, where she met James, a tire repairman who lectured on subjects like “Reincarnation” at the Theosophical Society. A new mysticism entered her life, and she began to express occult beliefs, like that thoughts can influence people and be photographed. Soon she was giving her own talks on “Telepathy” and the Hindu creation myth of “Hiranyagarbha.” After marrying James in 1918, she quit teaching to work at the Theosophical Society, and regularly exhibited her paintings there.
Laura also became politically active in Butte. When women won the right to vote in 1920, she ran for local office as a Socialist. Years later, she joined the Malibu Democratic Club, and operated a polling place at her Topanga home.
Laura was able to continue living at Brookside after the 1938 fire with the help of the Red Cross, which built her a five-room house 100 yards off the road. She continued to use her home as an exhibition space, and again filled it “to the rafters” with a new Western series that included Mount Whitney, Mount Rainier, Pikes Peak, June Lake, Mono Lake, Death Valley, Palm Springs, Yosemite, and the giant sequoias.
In 1939, Laura married Gilbert Ruben van Alen (1869-1952), and took his Dutch Golden Age-sounding surname. Gilbert, an auditor for the city of Los Angeles, was probably too conventional for her, however, because their marriage ended.
In 1949, the Los Angeles Times came to interview Laura about a two-month road trip she’d taken alone to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon.
“You’re never too old to do what you want to.” These were the words of Laura Way van Alen, 73….
“I am afraid of nothing.…”
She proudly displayed her paintings after apologizing for the condition of her house, explaining that in the morning she had canned 21 pints of pears and had company for lunch….
When asked her opinion on modern art, Laura said, “Ha!” She enlarged on the subject by saying… “I realize some people like modern art. For me I like to see an object as God made it. I don’t think His type of art will ever be improved upon.”
—“Woman Artist, 73, Enjoys Long Tour Alone in National Parks,” Los Angeles Times, 1949-09-11
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| Laura Way van Alen, 1949, c/o Los Angeles Times |
Laura continued to travel, paint, and be active in the community until her death at age 90 in 1966. One of her favorite quotes, from a speech by Harvard President Charles William Eliot, wonderfully captures her: “To see beauty and to love it is to possess large securities for… [a happy and worthy] life.”
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This is an excerpt from the book Topanga Beach: A History, 1820s-1920s. Author Pablo Capra is a former Lower Topanga resident, and continues to preserve the history of that neighborhood on his website, www.brasstackspress.com, and as a board member of the Topanga Historical Society, www.topangahistoricalsociety.org.
