Beatrice Fenton
Beatrice Fenton (July 12, 1887-1983) American sculptor and educator born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 12, 1887, best known for her whimsical fountains. Inspired by Rosa Bonheur she decided to become an animalier , so began drawing animals at the Philadelphia Zoo. Impressed with the drawings her father, Dr. Thomas Hanover Fenton, an art patron and head of the Philadelphia Art Club, showed them to a family friend, Thomas Eakins. Eakins found the drawings “too flat” and suggested that Fenton “get some clay and mold it.” Fenton enrolled in a sculpture class taught by A. Stirling Calder on 1903 and her future direction was set.[1]
From 1904 to 1912 she studied with Charles Grafly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.[2] There she met Marjorie Martinet and Emily Clayton Bishop. Her relationship with Martinet lasted more than fifty years, and included the exchange of passionate letters.[3][4]
Fenton taught sculpture at what is now the Moore College of Art and Design from 1942-1953.[5]
Fenton was a member of the National Sculpture Society. and her Nereid Fountain is featured in the NSS exhibition of 1929.[6] Her Seaweed Fountain is included in the Brookgreen Gardens collection.[7]
She died in Philadelphia in 1983.
External links
- Photographs of the Marjorie Martinet School of Art, George Glazer Gallery, New York City
- A Finding Aid to the Beatrice Fenton Papers, 1836-1984, bulk 1890-1978, in the Archives of American Art, by Jean Fitzgerald
References
- ↑ James-Gadzinski, Susan; Cunningham, Mary Mullen (1997). American sculpture in the Museum of American Art of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 225. ISBN 978-0295976921.
- ↑ Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer (1990). American women sculptors : a history of women working in three dimensions (1st ed.). Boston, MA: G.K. Hall. p. 159. ISBN 9780816187324.
- ↑ "Photographs of the Marjorie Martinet School of Art". George Glazer Gallery.
- ↑ Fitzgerald, Jean. "A Finding Aid to the Beatrice Fenton Papers, 1836-1984, bulk 1890-1978, in the Archives of American Art by Jean Fitzgerald". Archives of American Art.
- ↑ Opitz, Glenn B., ed. (1986). Mantle Fielding's dictionary of American painters, sculptors & engravers (2nd ed.). Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo. ISBN 978-0938290049.
- ↑ National Sculpture Society (U.S.); California Palace of the Legion of Honor (1929). Contemporary American sculpture : the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco, April to October 1929. New York, New York: National Sculpture Society, New York : Press of the Kalkhoff Company.
- ↑ Proske, Beatrice Gilman (1968). Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture. Brookgreen Gardens. p. 244.