When I first started posting about women artists, I asked readers if they could name five or more of them. What would happen if I changed the challenge to “name five or more women sculptors off the top of your head”?
Until some time after college, I wouldn’t have been able to list a single one. My first introduction to a female sculptor was the through the 1988 film Camille Claudel — a movie that is somewhat difficult to find now, though it can be purchased on Amazon.
After that, I started paying attention to female sculptors and their work. I’d open an issue of Victoria magazine and read an article on Bessie Potter Vonnoh. I’d go to the Como Conservatory and notice that it contained not one but two sculptures by Harriet Frishmuth. I’d run across Frishmuth again on visit to the Met… and also encounter two statues of jaguars by Anna Hyatt Huntington.
I recently decided to write about Frishmuth, but as I started my research, I found I wanted to include other female sculptors. In the end, I picked eight women to feature in this post.
Edmonia Lewis
Edmonia Lewis was an American sculptor of African-American and Native American descent. Her mother’s Ojibwe family adopted her after her parents died. She attended Oberlin College, where she faced accusations of crimes. Both times she was acquitted, but the second time she was prevented from continued enrollment. In connection with one of the accusations, a crowd of vigilantes beat her and left her for dead. After leaving Oberlin, Lewis sought instruction in sculpting. She was rejected by three instructors before finding someone who would teach her. A couple of years later she moved to Rome, Italy, where she spent most of the rest of her life. She’s known for neoclassical work, which she did mostly alone (unusual at the time). You can find Lewis’ work at various U.S. museums, including the Smithsonian.
Vinnie Ream
Vinnie Ream was the first woman to receive a commission from the U.S. government for a statue. Her subject matter was a big deal. In 1866, at the age of 18, she won a commission to produce a statue of Abraham Lincoln. This statue, displayed in the Capitol Rotunda, is her best-known work, but it’s hardly the only prominent sculpture by Ream that you can find in the D.C. area. Her statue of Admiral David G. Farragut sits in Farragut Square; her statue of Sequoyah is in Statuary Hall at the Capitol; and her grave in Arlington Cemetery is marked by a copy of her statue of Sappho. You can also find the Sappho sculpture in the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum.
Camille Claudel
Between her affair with Auguste Rodin and her confinement to a mental hospital, Camille Claudel is almost better known for her tragic life than for her art. She destroyed much of her work in 1905. What’s left is good stuff — beautiful and powerful. Your best bets for seeing her sculptures are in France, including a museum dedicated to her work. Otherwise, unless you’re lucky enough to stumble across a special exhibit featuring Claudel, you’ll have to settle for an odd piece here or there. In the United States, the Met has The Implorer, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts has Young Girl With a Sheaf. The latter is not on display right now. As far as I know, those are the only two of her works in permanent collections in the U.S.
Bessie Potter Vonnoh
Bessie Potter Vonnoh is best known for her “Secret Garden” statue in Central Park, but much of her work was smaller than that. She created many accessible table-top statues that often featured domestic subjects. You can find her sculptures in museums like the Met and the National Gallery of Art.
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
Yes, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney was one of the famous Vanderbilt family. Yes, she founded the Whitney Museum in New York. But she wasn’t just a wealthy art collector. Whitney was also a successful sculptor who created several large public pieces, which can be found in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a few other places. She also made smaller sculptures. Some of her work, such as her statues of World War I soldiers, has a style that feels deliberately unfinished — more modern than the work of the other women I mention in this post.
Anna Hyatt Huntington
Apparently, just as you find Ream’s sculptures all over the D.C. area, you can find lots of Anna Hyatt Huntington’s work throughout New York City. Huntington specialized in animals, especially, though not exclusively, horses. Her statue of Joan of Arc is the first public monument in New York City to be created by a woman and the first public monument there to honor a real woman. Her work extends far beyond New York, to places like Spain, Argentina, California, South Carolina, and Connecticut.
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth
Step into one of my favorite rooms at the Met, and you’ll find Harriet Frishmuth’s sculpture The Vine. But long before I had the opportunity to see that, I had fallen in love with her graceful Crest of the Wave, which is on display in the Como Park Conservatory along with her work Play Days. I love the sense of graceful movement that’s present in so many of her sculptures. You can find her work here and there across the United States.
Augusta Savage
Augusta Savage was an artist who pursued her passion in the face of great opposition. Her father beat her for making clay figures. As she grew and continued to sculpt, she sometimes found encouragement — a high school principal who believed in her, financial aid that enabled her to attend Cooper Union. But she also faced discrimination and financial difficulties. In 1932, she opened a studio in Harlem, where she taught art. Unfortunately, after a career high point in 1939, when she was commissioned to create a sculpture for the World’s Fair, she largely withdrew from an active career in art, possibly discouraged after years of struggle. Very little of her work has survived her. You can find her bust Gamin at both the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and at the Cleveland Museum of Art.