Mark Twain's Girls

Perhaps the most precious grouping in this extraordinary collection of Victorian images is this one... of the Clemens girls. To have stumbled upon these treasures has been a great thrill and privilege, and in the process has required that I research so much about them that I have begun to feel like a member of the family.

So let me introduce you.

 My tintype of the two is the one in the middle, and enlarged for comparison.

Susy was the second born to the Clemens, after her brother Langdon, who died in infancy. She too was fragile, but her beauty and wisdom made her a favorite of Sam Clemens, who perceived that she had similar creative gifts to his. Clara was the high strung child, somewhat rebellious, who struggled for attention as the middle child. Susy would die as a young woman and never married, and Clara would fall in love with a young musician while studying music in Europe, and would eventually marry him. 

 The oldest and youngest Clemens girls. 

Susy's sweetness is as obvious as Jean's robustness. Susy was the perfect big sister, a kind of little mother who ably led the other two. Tomboyish and hot- tempered, Jean developed epilepsy and spent a great deal of time in treatment at special facilities far from home.

 I could not decide which of the Clemens daughters this was.

 One day I say Jean, the next day Clara. If it is Jean,

 it is the prettiest picture of her ever.

  Strictly chaperoned, Clara met Ossip, a Russian piano student, 

in music class while living in Europe. I think they were quite

 fond of each other early on, but Sam was so busy with his 

research and business problems that Olivia spared him the drama.

Clara tended to add and slough off weight all through her life. She was very thin as a child but plumped up as a pre-teen.. then growth spurts thinned her down until her metabolism slowed down and like her mother, she put on weight again as a young adult. Below she is in super-model form as she poses with her beloved music teacher (and matchmaker!) the celebrated Leschetiskzy.

 Clara was a gifted singer and musician, and made it

 her life's passion. But when you marry a world famous pianist, 

your own music goals take the back seat.

Clara and Ossip pose, in winter garb, with 

Ossip's sister, I think. Here Clara has gained a few

 pounds, but wears them well.  This photo was made long

 before they were married, which was almost in middle age, 

at the end of Twain's life.

I have to say, it was the appearance of these two Europeans, Grabrilowitch and Leschetiskzy, each with unique faces, pupil and teacher, which convinced me without any doubt about the identities of the young women in these tintypes. Nice looking people are harder to sift, but with these two men there were just too many coincidences necessary for these people to be any body else.

 

This was a tough one... (the oval in the middle) I thought this 

was Olivia for along time. The similarity between Olivia and

 her daughters was truly vexing. But the dress is more turn 

of the Century...

Susy was a young adult on her own for the last chapter in her life, attending school while the Clemenses toured Europe. She became sick and died while they were away. Perhaps there was more to it, but the Clemens were very private and protective of the Twain image. Hers was the first death in a string of losses which left Mark Twain devastated.

Not long after,  Olivia passed away from heart disease, and then just as Jean took the reins as woman of the house, she drowned in the bath tub one Christmas Eve, supposedly from an untimely epileptic seizure.

Clara was happily married to Ossip, and they spent a lot of time in Russia. They had one daughter, whose life would be more tragic than any of them. I have often wondered how these precious images got away, and were lost to history, and fear they were in her possession when she died of a drug overdose in California. There is a very strong presence of Clara, her mother, in the tintypes... But then she lived the longest, so that would make since. And this collection includes a great deal that would have been in the care of A.B. Paine... until his death.... and then... who knows

We will probably never know.