This Page:
Adelaide Manan
Retta T. Matthews
Ida Matton
Helen F. Mears
Jean Pond Miner (Coburn)
Henrietta Montalba
Blanche Nevin
Elisabet Ney
Ellen Mary Rope
Theodora Alice Ruggles
Princess M. Schahovskoy
Sappho--exhibited in the Woman's
Building, 1893 Exposition.
No biographical information on Adelaide Manan is available online.
Indiana--exhibited in Indiana
State Building, 1893 Exposition.
See
Matthews statuary.
Salle de Venus, Louvre (image unavailable)--
exhibited in Board Room, Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition.
Retta Matthews was born in Arlington, Indiana. She studied art at the Cincinnati Museum Association Art School , taught art in the San Antonio, Texas public schools, and then continued her studies in New York City and Paris. Her commissioned statue of "Indiana" was displayed in the Indiana State Building at the 1893 Exposition and is currently located on the fourth floor of the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. No more information is available online.
Monument for a
Matton Family Tomb--
representative work.
The
Punishment of Loke--
1905 representative work.
Mama (image unavailable)--exhibited at
the Fine Arts Palace, 1893 Exposition.
Ida Matton was born in Gefle, Sweden and studied at the Technical School of Stockholm and in Paris under H. Chapu, A. Mercie, and D. Puech. She often exhibited and won prizes in Sweden and in France.
Aphrodite--
representative work.
Frances E. Willard--
now on display in the
National Statuary Hall
of the U.S. Capitol.
Genius of
Wisconsin--
exhibited in the Wisconsin
Building, 1893 Exposition.
"The female figure stands on a
rock
(a firm foundation), her head resting
on the breast of the eagle-Old Abe-,
while his right wing stretches
protectingly over her.
The folds
of the American flag form her
drapery.") See Mears statue.
Helen F. Mears was born in Wisconsin and studied at the Chicago Art Institute under Lorado Taft. She was commissioned to create her 9-foot statue "Genius of Wisconsin" for the Wisconsin Building at the 1893 World Fair. Mears also studied in New York and became an assistant to Saint-Gaudens, working in Paris in 1898 on his Sherman Monument. Her numerous commissions included a statue of Frances E. Willard, the first statue by a woman accepted in the Capitol Building, Washington, D. C.
Helen Mears Studio--shows a number of sculptures
Model of statue proposed for State Capitol
Forward--artist
working on the statue.
Forward--exhibited
in Wisconsin Building
(The statue was described as standing upon the prow of a boat
with a figure-head of "Old Abe." The boat is surging through the water; the poised
figure stretches forth the right hand, while the left clasps the American flag.
See contemporary bronze casting of it on the right).
See Miner statue.
Jean Pond Miner was born in Wisconsin, studied at the Chicago Art Institute, and taught at the McGowan School for the Deaf until she became an assistant to sculptor Lorado Taft. In 1893, she was appointed as artist-in-residence at the Wisconsin Pavilion at the Exposition. A Wisconsin women's club commissioned Miner to make the statue "Forward" to represent Wisconsin's progress. Miner worked with pastels in her later years. She was married to Alonzo J. Coburn.
Marquis
of Lorne--
representative work.
Robert Browning 1889--
representative work.
Venetian Boy Catching a Crab 1893--exhibited
in the Fine Arts Palace, 1893 Exposition.
Born in London, Henrietta Montalba was part of a family of artists, including her Swedish father A.R. Montalba (a painter) and three of her four sisters. She studied at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington with Princess Louise, duchess of Arguyll, and along with her elder sister, spent time with the princess in Canada painting landscapes. Montalba also studied in the Accademia di Belle Arti at Venice and later became a pupil of Jules Dalou, the French sculptor. She and her sisters began exhibiting at the Royal Academy during the 1870s. Henrietta specialized in portrait busts.
Peter Muhlenberg
1889--at the United
States Capitol Building.
Maud Muller--this may
be the
Maud Muller
statue exhibited at the
1874 Universal
Exposition and in
the Rotunda, in the
Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition
Cinderella [drawing of statue]--exhibited in
Rotunda, Woman's Building, 1893 Exposition.
Blanche Nevin was born into a prominent Pennsylvania family. Her father was president of Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster County and her mother was the daughter of Congressman Robert Jenkins who was also the ironmaster of Windsor Forge. Nevin studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and with Joseph Bailly, followed by studies at the Royal Art Academy in Venice, Italy and in Carrara, Italy. Perhaps the first noteworthy woman sculptor in the U.S., she was particularly remembered for her sculpture of the Revolutionary War General Peter Muhlenberg but she produced many other neo-classical public statues also. Her Maud Muller statue was based on the sentimental heroine from John Greenleaf Whittier's popular poem. Nevin also wrote poetry.
Lady MacBeth 1905--
representative work.
Stephen Austin--
commissioned by
the
Board of Lady Managers,
Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition.
Samuel Houston--
commissioned by
the
Board of Lady Managers,
Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition.
Born Franzisca Bernadina Wilhelmina Elisabeth Ney in Westphalia, Germany, Elisabet Ney studied at the Academy in Berlin and the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Her busts of famous figures like Schopenhauer, King George V of Hanover, Garibaldi, and Bismarck brought her fame. In 1871, she and her physician-husband (Edmund Duncan Montgomery) decided to move to America. Settling in Texas, Ney gave up sculpting for 20 years to raise her two sons and run their plantation while her husband engaged in research. Ney came out of retirement in 1890 to sculpt the two Texas heroes commissioned by the Board of Lady Managers for the Women's Building at the 1893 World Fair. Unfortunately, Ney missed the deadline, but these statues are now displayed in the Texas State Capitol.
Daybreak--
representative work.
Joy to the New Year,
Peace to the Old
--
medallion exhibited in Fine
Arts Palace, 1893 Exposition.
Blessed are the
Pure in Spirit
--
representative work.
Bas-relief of Ralph Waldo Emerson (image unavailable)--
medallion exhibited in Fine Arts Palace, 1893 Exposition.
According to the records, Prescott exhibited
"bas relief and bronze medallions" (undesignated individually)
in
the Woman's Building, 1893 Exposition.
Katherine T. Hooper Prescott was born in Maine to Colonel Edward Henry Cobb Hooper (Civil War veteran and insurance agent) and his wife Deborah Elizabeth White. Katherine moved to North Dakota with her husband Harry Lawson Prescott, only to be widowed at age 36 with three children to raise by herself. She returned back east and began studying art with E. Boyd in Boston and with sculptor Francis Edwin Elwell in New York City. She seems to have exhibited regularly. Her brother William Phillip Hooper was also an artist (landscape painter). Katherine was also a published poet.
Christ Blessing the Little Children--
representative work.
Plaque from
Royal Shrewsbury
Hospital [Copyright Arthur Rope -
http://arthur.rope.clara.net]--
representative work.
Charity
[Copyright H.Blairman & Sons -
http://www.blairman.co.uk/]
--one
of four spandrels for the
Woman's Building, 1893 Exposition.
Hope--This might be the
plaster-relief panel exhibited in the
Woman's Building, 1893 Exposition.
Ellen Mary Rope was born into a large family at Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk, England. She studied drawing with philanthropist-reformer Octavia Hill and later at Ipswich School of Art, but became interested in sculpture while at the Slade School at University College London. She participated often in the Arts and Crafts Society Exhibitions and began designing decorative arts for Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead. Rope designed four plaster-relief panels (6 feet tall images of Faith, Hope, Charity and Heavenly Wisdom) for the Women's Building at the Chicago 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Her brother George Thomas Rope and nieces Dorothy Rope, Margaret Agnes Rope, and Margaret Edith Rope were also artists.
Aux Bords de L'Oise
(On the Banks of the Oise)--
exhibited in Fine Arts Palace,
1893 Exposition.
Young Orpheus
c. 1890--
exhibited in the Fine Arts
Palace, 1893 Exposition.
Mother Bickerdyke Monument 1906--
representative work.
A New England Fisherman 1892 and Portrait Bust
of an Italian Child c. 1887 (images unavailable)
--exhibited in Fine Arts Palace, 1893 Exposition.
Ruggles was commissioned by the women of
Michigan to make bronze statues of a girl and boy
holding branches to represent the woods of that
state
for the Columbian Exhibition at Chicago
in 1893 (image unavailable).
Born in Massachusetts, the teenaged Theo Alice Ruggles studied sculpture in Paris under Dagnan-Bouveret and under Henry Hudson Kitson whom she would marry in 1893. She is probably best remembered for her "hiker" statues which were erected in many communities throughout the country in memory of the servicemen killed in the Spanish-American War (1898-99). She was a prolific and well-respected artist in her day.
Bust of
Princess Oblensky
--exhibited in the
Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition.
Terra Cotta
Bust--
exhibited in the
Woman's Building,
1893 Exposition.
Princess Mary Schahovskoy was a Russian sculptor. A maid of honor to the Empress of Russia, Schahovskoy was part of the Congress of Representative Women and a Judge of Awards in the Fine Arts Division at the 1893 Exposition.
Go to International Women Sculptors, p. 4
Return to International Women Sculptors, p. 2
Return to Site Index
Text written by K. L. Nichols
Photograph, top of page: Larado Taft and his "White Rabbits"
(primarily Julie Bracken) preparing "The Battle of the Flowers"
statuary for the Agricultural Building entryway.
Return to Nichols Home Page
Suggestions/Comments: knichols11@cox.net
Posted: 6-25-02; Updated: 05-01-19
