In the summer of 1926, newlywed artist Germaine Rouget Chéruy left Paris, France, to join her husband, Loomis’ legendary teacher of French, René Chéruy. She brought an impressive resume to the Island and created an energetic program for the study of art at both the Loomis and Chaffee schools. While other college preparatory schools had not yet introduced studio art to their curriculums, Loomis’ and Chaffee’s programs were well positioned for success with the gift of a comprehensive art history library from The Carnegie Foundation, support from Hartford’s art impresario and Director of the Wadsworth Athenaeum A. Everett Austin Jr., and the innovative, spirited pedagogy of Mme. Chéruy.

A graduate of the Sorbonne, Mme. Chéruy had been named an associate of the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. She taught decorative composition in “écoles professionalles” as well as designing costumes for the Paris Opéra and the avant-garde Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. Germaine drew her inspiration from an eclectic group of sources: Rembrandt’s drawing, Claude Lorrain’s paintings, and the wood block prints of an early 19th-century Japanese artist, Hokusai. Art historian Stanton L. Catlin ’32 recalled in a 1989 interview, now stored at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, that Germaine “was a very, very intelligent and educated woman, interested in contemporary art. [T]his was, of course, the most far-out thing you could think of bringing into a New England prep school at that time.”

Interest in studio art flourished at both Loomis and Chaffee under Madame Chéruy’s tutelage.

Shortly after her arrival in Windsor, Mme. Chéruy accepted a position at the Hartford Art School and brought a revolutionary approach to the instruction of drawing — the use of short clips of motion pictures in place of live models — and was the first teacher in America to employ this method. The Hartford Courant described it as “an appeal to the imagination” and noted that Mme. Chéruy’s Hartford students “attack[ed] their work with a zest that would scarcely be possible under the ordinary studio method…[T]he system cultivate[d] individuality of treatment so that the personality of the student is reflected in his work.” Three years later, she offered the first free-hand drawing course at Loomis.

Interest in studio art flourished at both Loomis and Chaffee under Mme. Chéruy’s tutelage. She founded the Art Club, open to all regardless of talent or experience, and with Mr. and Mrs. Batchelder’s support oversaw the renovation of the north end of the Power House into a studio space with large windows providing ample light and northern, eastern, and western exposure. The room also featured the Art Room Wall, where students and faculty exhibited their work. Art Club members designed and produced scenery for campus theater productions, created artwork for both Loomis and Chaffee yearbooks, and experimented with abstract photography. Mme. Chéruy’s flair for contemporary art influenced much of this work.

In the early 1930s, Everett Austin invited Mme. Chéruy’s students to display their work at the Wadsworth. The 1933 show included 90 pieces of art by Loomis and Chaffee students, an impressive range, according to The Hartford Courant, of “charcoal compositions, watercolors, life drawings, posters, ink drawings and photographs.” Another columnist writing for The Hartford Times gave the originality of the students’ work “a more favorable criticism than that of the Yale undergraduates who [were] exhibiting in an adjoining room.” The LOG noted that the exhibition tended “toward the modern” and that the trend of “true expression of oneself” was present in many works, especially that of Alexander Eliot ’36 and Vincent Arguimbau Jr. ’35. Both would later pursue art endeavors in their professional careers, and Alexander credited Mme. Chéruy as “a fine artist” in his training. The Courant took special notice of “the paintings and sketches of Eliot, which although betraying his age — he is 13 — show a real gift and sure comprehension of what art is.” Phoebe Lou Adams ’35, a 13-year-old Chaffee student, garnered accolades for a children’s book she wrote and illustrated with 10 woodcuts. The LOG noted that “the book should enjoy real success and several copies have already been sold.” Phoebe Lou would eventually make a long career as an author and book reviewer for The Atlantic Monthly.

Germaine Chéruy built a vibrant program for the study of art at Loomis and Chaffee. She continued to exhibit her art work in New York and Boston galleries and at Yale, Harvard, and MIT while also inspiring students to appreciate the “true expression of oneself.” In 1976, nearly three decades after her retirement, French teacher Joseph Stookins honored Mme. Chéruy in a chapel talk. He remembered advice she had once dispensed: “Keep your flexibility of mind, so that you may harmonize yourself with today.” Once can imagine Mme. Chéruy sharing these words with her students, inspiring them that “far-out” modern art was a noble and joyful pursuit.