Helena Modjeska

Born Jadwiga Benda in Kraków, Helena Modjeska became the leading actress of the Polish stage before emigrating to America in 1876 with her husband, Count Karol Bozenta Chłapowski, and a small colony of Polish artists and writers — including the future Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz — who briefly attempted a utopian community in Anaheim, California.

Within two years of arriving she had mastered English well enough to make a triumphant debut in San Francisco, and for the next quarter century she toured the United States and Britain as the foremost Shakespearean actress of her generation, celebrated as Rosalind, Viola, Beatrice, Juliet, Lady Macbeth, and above all as a luminous Camille.

Modjeska was a treasured guest of Richard Watson Gilder and Helena de Kay Gilder, whose Friday-evening salon at the Studio brought together the leading writers, artists, and performers of the age. Her presence in the Gilders' drawing room, and her warm correspondence with Richard, exemplify the cosmopolitan reach of the circle gathered at Four Brooks Farm's New York counterpart.