The Dreamer From Alsace
Born in 1874, Emile Brunel arrived in America from France in 1904 hungry for adventure. Inspired by the legends and myths he had read, Brunel set off to explore the American West.
Out here, through canyons and across deserts, Brunel discovered his love of photography taking pictures of Native Americans and documenting their way of life with a simple box camera.
A young Emile Brunel.
One fateful evening while attending the circus, Brunel met Gladyse McCloud, a tight-rope walker and caricaturist. Brunel instantly fell in love and vowed to return to her once he had made his fortune.
A young Gladyse “Penny” McCloud.
Brunel set to work. He returned to New York City, opened a movie studio with Cecil B. Demille, became a respected portrait photographer, and made his fortune honing and developing the one-hour photo process — revolutionizing the film industry by allowing productions to view footage shot the same day. In 1910, he founded what is now The New York Institute of Photography(NYIP), one of the largest and longest running photography schools in the world. https://www.nyip.edu/.
Fulfilling his promise to Gladyse, Brunel sent for her and moved his entire operation north — to a sprawling Catskills property and purchased the John’s Hotel that he transformed into a world-class resort: Le Chalet Indien.
The hotel housed guests amongst surreal folk art sculptures fabricated by Emile Brunel, who served as the center of attention.
A premiere destination for celebrities and politicians from the late 1920s to the mid 1940s, Chalet Indien was a singular Catskills hotel frequented by the likes of Enrico Caruso, Jimmy and Max Ernst, Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, and King Edward VII with his paramour, Ms. Wallis Simpson. It is said that FDR claimed that Brunel cooked the best pancakes in the country.
The resort was also popular with artists, architects, writers, poets, and musicians from Vienna, Austria who had emigrated from Europe in the mid 1930s. Frederick Kiesler and his wife Steffi, Hans Bier-Hoffman, Joseph Bingler, Karol Rathaus, and Sydney and Harriet Janis were frequent visitors throughout the 30s and 40s, some spending their entire summers at Le Chalet Indien.
Brunel hired a manager to run the hotel, which freed him up to spend his time creating his monumental figurative and totemic sculptures.
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Brunel’s original notes and sketches for a totem pole and Moonhaw.
Brunel sits in front of The Great White Spirit still in the midst of construction.
The statuary and totem poles are constructed around a wire mesh armature which was then filled with rocks, cedar logs, and stones to make them sturdy. Concrete was applied to the exterior of the armature and the figures were sculpted on top of that. The larger ones weigh approximately 10 tons!
Natache then, and during restoration, 2023
Brunel himself, grilling in front of The Chief (left) —
who still watches over our land today (right).
The Brunel Totem nearing completion of restoration in front of Cranesbill Cabin July 2023.
The iconic totem pole and Moonhaw, praying to the mountain gods, as they appeared almost 100 years ago from Route 28.
Correspondence between Brunel and the first lady herself — Eleanor Roosevelt — “I have now learned to care little or nothing for what other people may think.”
Woodrow Wilson decides to stop by and signs Emil Brunel’s guest book with “Wilson that’s all!”
The French Neo-Rustic Brunel home and studio, soon after it was completed in 1933.
The Brunel home and studio in late Summer 2019 — awash in native flora.
Emile Brunel died on November 10, 1944.
His ashes are rumored to be stored at the top of “The Great White Spirit,” his masterpiece totem, frequently climbed by Brunel to the excitement and envy of his guests.
The completion by A and M Masonry of the restoration of the Great White Spirit Totem (July 2023).
Today, Brunel’s spirit can palpably be felt at Brunel Sculpture Garden — climbing, dancing, running, and building. A visitor to the garden is given the gift of taking a walk through Brunel’s soul.