Throughout his career, François Delsarte was lauded for his incredible talent and technique. In a time of overdramatic and unrealistic performance associated with melodrama, Delsarte could truly convince people of his reality through his acting. One critic in 1860 noted, “Delsarte does not separate song from declamation, the singer from the actor. For him, a song must be a sort of tragic chant, where the voice, gestures and countenance cooperate in the interpretation of drama.”[1] After his death, two of his children, Gustave and Marie continued to teach the Delsarte System in France.[2]
Photograph of Steele Mackay (1927)
His only American student, Steele Mackaye studied with Delsarte for almost a year and even began to help teach with him.[3] Then in 1870 the Franco-Prussian War forced him to leave France and in March 1871 Mackaye introduced the Delsarte System to the US by a very popular and well-attended lecture.[4] Mackaye became influential in the beginnings of formal actor training when before, actors learned by doing and autonomous decision.[5] With Mackaye arose the beginnings of American Delsartism which was becoming distinct from what Delsarte’s students were teaching in France. He introduced ideas of harmonic gymnastics and gave a litte more attention to dance than Delsarte had in his theories.[6]
Photograph of Henrietta Hovey
A woman named Henrietta Hovey would attend Mackaye’s lectures and train with his colleague Lewis Monroe.[7] Fascinated, she travelled to Paris to study with Gustave Delsarte around 1879.[8] Over the next decade she contributed to the popularization of Delsartism in America outside of just acting and public-speaking.[9] Genevieve Stebbins was perhaps the most influential in the spread of Delsartism in the late 19th century. She studied diligently under Mackaye for two years in the late 1870s.[10] In 1880, Stebbins and her colleague produced an annual “Delsarte Matinee” to popularize the system and introduce it to prospective students.[11]
Photograph of Genevieve Stebbins (1892)
In 1885 she published The Delsarte System of Expression and by this point had established herself as an authority in the field of Delsartism.[12] She continued to teach and lecture at colleges and universities into the 20th century.[13] It is important to note that most followers of Delsartism were well educated members of the middle-class.[14] Additionally, students and audiences of Stebbins were mostly female.[15]
Delsarte was not finished with his work and theories at the time of his death and so his system developed and changed without him.[16] In fact, his daughter Marie saw some thirty years after his death what the Americans had developed from his system, she was disappointed.[17] American Delsarteans were likewise disappointed in her, and thus sparked the debate surrounding what would be considered “true” Delsartism.[18] Regardless, followers performed, taught, and wrote substantial material regarding the Delsarte System.
[1] Ruyter, Nancy Lee Chalfa. The Cultivation of Body and Mind in Nineteenth-Century American Delsartism. Greedwood Press, 1999, 6.
[2] Supra. n. 1 at p. 7
[3] Supra. n. 1 at p. 18
[4] Supra. n. 1 at p. 18-20
[5] Supra. n. 1 at p. 21
[6] Supra. n. 1 at p. 22
[7] Supra. n. 1 at p. 33
[8] Supra. n. 1 at p. 33
[9] Supra. n. 1 at p. 31
[10] Supra. n. 1 at p. 46-47
[11] Supra. n. 1 at p. 48
[12] Supra. n. 1 at p. 47
[13] Supra. n. 1 at p. 52
[14] Supra. n. 1 at p. 54
[15] Supra. n. 1 at p. 54
[16] Supra. n. 1 at p. 8
[17] Supra. n. 1 at p. 13
[18] Supra. n. 1 at p. 13