Women artists in all ages and countriesEllet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
History
Women artists in all ages and countries
Ellet, E. F. (Elizabeth Fries)
Women artists
MRS. WILSON.
Mrs. Lee mentions Mrs. Wilson of Cincinnati as having displayed much
original talent in sculpture. The following account is from a friend’s
letter:
“She is the wife of a physician of Cincinnati, and was born, I believe,
in or near Cooperstown, New York. Her first impressions of persons
and things are expressed in her conversation. She is a perfect child
of nature, impulsive, but wonderfully perceptive, and with so much
freshness that all persons of mind are attracted to her. Her infancy
and youth were very much shadowed by domestic sufferings, originating,
at first, in the loss of a large property by her father, who in
consequence removed to the West. He died when she was quite young. She
married Dr. Wilson, a most excellent person, of Quaker family. All
circumstances were such, that an early revelation or development was
not made of her artistic powers. In visiting a sculptor’s studio the
desire first awoke; an intelligent friend encouraged and sympathized
with her, and Mrs. Wilson procured the materials. Her feeling was so
intense that it could not be repressed. Her husband was her first
subject. She worked with so much energy that sometimes she would
faint away, and on one of these occasions he said, ‘If you are not
more moderate, I will throw that thing out of the window.’ But it was
finished, proving a perfect likeness, and she chiseled it in stone. It
is in her parlor at Cincinnati, a most beautiful bust, and an admirable
likeness, and seems like a miracle, considering it was her first
attempt.
“Another marvelous work is the figure of her son. He threw himself on
the floor one morning in an attitude at once striking and picturesque.
To copy it required a perfectly correct eye, or a knowledge of anatomy.
She courageously attempted it; the attitude was repeated, and her
success was triumphant. It is only a cast, and the cast does not do
justice to the finish of her work, but she has not been able to procure
a block of marble for the copy. The effect is wonderful for its spirit
and the accuracy of its anatomy. She has commenced other subjects, but
some of them are not finished, and to others accidents have happened.
“She has a family of children, and is a devoted mother. We think
_stone_ will have but little chance with those beings of flesh and
blood whose minds and hearts she is carefully modeling. Perhaps family
cares may be the true secret why female sculptors are so rare; but
we congratulate this lady that she has the true perception of the
beautiful, and feel quite sure it will mitigate the suffering from
delicate health, and scatter fragrant flowers and healing herbs in the
sometimes rugged paths of duty.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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