Helen Farnsworth Mears
Helen Farnsworth Mears (born December 21, 1872 in Oshkosh , Wisconsin , † February 17, 1916 in Greenwich Village , New York City ) was an American sculptor . She was one of the artists of the White Rabbits , a group of female sculptors that had been founded at the end of the 19th century.
Life
Mears was born on December 21, 1872 to John Hall Mears and Mary Elizabeth Farnsworth, the youngest of three daughters. Her sister Mary was a writer and her mother was the first Wisconsin poet to publish and also published under the pseudonyms Nellie Wildwood and Ianthe .
She got her first lessons from her father, who had studied to become a surgeon and thus introduced her to human anatomy . She modeled her first piece, a head of the god Apollo , in clay and exhibited it at the Oshkosh County Exhibition at the age of nine . An acquaintance sent a photo of a sculpture she created at the age of 14 to the sculptors John Quincy Adams Ward and Augustus Saint-Gaudens . Both were very enthusiastic about the work and invited them to study with them. At that age, however, this was not yet possible for her.
Helen Farnsworth Mears graduated from Oshkosh State Normal School , now the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh . In 1892 she was commissioned to create a statue for the Wisconsin Building at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 . This was entitled Genius of Wisconsin and depicts a woman carrying an eagle with outspread wings on her shoulder. At that time she had not yet received any professional training as a sculptor. In Chicago she worked at the Art Institute of Chicago . There she met Lorado Taft , who promoted her, and became a member of the White Rabbits group , a group of young sculptors who worked with Taft on exhibits for the World's Columbian Exposition and who were represented with their own works at the World's Fair. Her Genius of Wisconsin statue is now in the rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol .
Thanks to the success she had with her work at the World's Fair and winning a prize over $ 500 , she was able to travel to New York and enroll in the Art Students League . In New York she became a student and assistant to Augustus Saint-Gaudens, with whom she studied for two years. From 1897 to 1899 she studied in France and Italy until she returned to Oshkosh in 1898 and moved to New York in 1899.
In Paris she studied at the Académie Julian and the Académie Vitti .
She opened her own studio in New York. There she completed the marble sculpture by Frances Willard for the Statuary Hall in the US Capitol . She also worked on a work of art for which she won the silver medal at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition . It was a wall fountain, the "Fountain of Life", which was accidentally destroyed when the plaster model was to be cast in bronze.
Together with her sister, the writer Mary Mears, she was one of the first to be invited to the MacDowell Colony and worked there.
In December 1910, Mears was commissioned to create a heroic figure for the dome of Wisconsin's new Capitol building. She began designing models and adjusting her designs in response to criticism from members of the commission. Despite their best efforts, in February 1911 the commission decided to solicit designs from other sculptors. Your third design was not even submitted to the commission by the architect of the Capitol, George Post . Mears was very disappointed with that. She was still paid for her designs, but this left her with great bitterness. Your assignment was terminated by the Commission. The contract went to Daniel Chester French , whom she had previously advised.
After this major assignment was terminated, she and her sister lived in great poverty in New York. In 1914 she created the sculpture "End of Day", which bore an almost prophetic title. Helen Farnsworth Mears died of the flu in her studio on February 17, 1916, malnourished and debilitated .
plant
- Genius of Wisconsin , Wisconsin State Capitol
- Statue of Frances Willard, United States Capitol
- Statue End of Day
- The Awakening statue , Brooklyn Museum
- Statue Death Uncovering Its Face and Showing It To Be Life , Brooklyn Museum
- Armless Angel statue , Brooklyn Museum
- Adin Randall Fountain in Eau Claire
- Bronze bust of George Rogers Clark
- Bronze bust of William TG Morton
- Relief by August Saint-Gaudens
- Relief by Edward MacDowell
- Relief by Mary Elizabeth Mears
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- 1919 Peabody Museum, Baltimore, Maryland
- 1920 Brooklyn Museum, New York
- 1923 Milwaukee Art Institute, Wisconsin
- 1960 Paine Art Center and Arboretum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin (also 1970)
Group exhibitions (selection)
- 1893 Chicago, Illinois, World's Columbian Exposition
- 1897 Paris, Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts
- 1900 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
- 1904 The Fountain of Life , St. Louis Exposition
- 1916 Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, 29th Exhibition of American Painters and Sculptors
- Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture
- 1972 State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, Famous Women
- 1988 Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin, 100 Years of Wisconsin Art
Honors
- 1904 silver medal for The Fountain of Life St. Louis Exposition
- 2005 Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award recipient (The Wisconsin Visual Art Hall of Fame)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Helen Farnsworth Mears | Newspaper Article / Clipping | Wisconsin Historical Society . In: Wisconsin Historical Society . 2012 ( wisconsinhistory.org ).
- ↑ a b Helen Farnsworth Mears | American sculptor . In: Encyclopedia Britannica . ( britannica.com ).
- ↑ a b c d e Helen Farnsworth Mears | MOWA Online Archive. In: wisconsinart.org. Retrieved April 2, 2018 .
Web links
- Helen Farnsworth Mears entry in the Museum of Wisconsin Art
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mears, Helen Farnsworth |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sculptress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oshkosh , Wisconsin |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 17, 1916 |
| Place of death | Greenwich Village , New York City |