Frances Grimes

Frances Grimes (1869–1963) was an American sculptor. She was born in Braceville, Ohio. She died in New York City.

Grimes studied at the Pratt Institute in New York with Herbert Adams and worked as his assistant from 1894 to 1900. Adams called her "the best marble-cutter in America".^[1] She spent a summer with Herbert Adams and his wife, Adeline, in the Cornish, New Hampshire art colony in the summer of 1894 and visited repeated times afterwards describing the colony in her unpublished "Reminiscences" held in Special Collections at Dartmouth College.^[2] It was in Cornish that she met sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens who persuaded her to join him as his full-time assistant in 1900 in his studio. She worked with him until his death in 1907.^[3] After Saint Gaudens' death, Grimes stayed on at his studio to finish several of his commissions including the eight Caryatids which she modeled from his sketch models created for a porch at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York. She later moved to New York and took a studio in Macdougal Alley in Greenwich Village.^[4]

Grimes worked in bronze and marble.^[5] Grimes was a member of the National Sculpture Society, whose 1929 exhibition catalog states that her work included "many bas-relief portraits, and busts, especially of children." ^[6] She was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member in 1931, and an full Academician in 1945.^[7] She was also a member of National Association of Women Artists and the American Federation of Arts.^[8]

Works

• "Arthur Whiting", 1907, bas-relief portrait at Music Division of New York Public Library in Lincoln Center.^[9]
• "Bishop Henry C. Potter", 1911, marble bust at Grace Church, New York.^[4]
• "Girl by Pool" and "Boy with Duck", 1913, full length garden figures at Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio.^[10]
• "Girls Singing", 1916, carved marble panel at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.^[11]
• "Sleepy Hollow Panel", 1916, bas-relief over-mantel in foyer of Washington Irving High School, New York.^[12]
• "Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth Pearsons" and "Dr. William Barnes", 1919, relief portraits at Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, Illinois.^[4]
• "Charlotte Saunders Cushman", 1925, bronze bust at the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.^[13]
• "Emma Willard", 1929, bronze bust at the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.^[14]

Awards^[10]

• Silver medal for numismatic design, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915
• McMillan sculpture prize, National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, 1916
• National Association Medal of Sculpture, National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, 1920.^[15]
• Memorial exhibition of Grimes' sculpture at Saint-Gaudens Museum, July–August 1964.^[15]

References

1. Arts & Decoration. Artspur publications, Incorporated. 1920-01-01.
2. Grimes, Frances; French, Daniel Chester. Material on awards, honors, and society memberships], 1912 December 11-1963 November 11, [n.p.
3. Petteys, Chris, ‘’Dictionary of Women Artists’’, G K Hill & Co. publishers, 1985
4. Streifer Rubinstein, Charlotte (1990). American Women Scupltors. Boston: G.K.Hall & Co. pp. 125–126. ISBN 0816187320.
5. Petteys, Chris (1985). Dictionary of Women Artists: an international dictionary of women artists born before 1900. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co. p. 299. ISBN 0816184569.
6. National Sculpture Society, ‘’Contemporary American Sculpture’’, National Sculpture Society, NY 1929 p. 134
7. "National Academicians". Retrieved 1 February 2014.
8. "Frances Grimes - Artist Biography for Frances Grimes". www.askart.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
9. N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York; Tolles, Thayer; Dimmick, Lauretta; Hassler, Donna J. (2001-01-01). American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born between 1865 and 1885. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870999239.
10. Heller, Jules & Nancy (1995). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: a biographical dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing. p. 227. ISBN 0824060490.
11. "Art Object". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, i.e. The Met Museum. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
12. York, Municipal Art Society of New (1915-01-01). Bulletin of the Municipal Art Society of New York ...
13. "The Hall of Fame for Great Americans - Face-to-Face Online Tour". www.bcc.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
14. "The Hall of Fame for Great Americans - Face-to-Face Online Tour". www.bcc.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
15. N.Y.), Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York; Tolles, Thayer; Dimmick, Lauretta; Hassler, Donna J. (2001-01-01). American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A catalogue of works by artists born between 1865 and 1885. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870999239.