- Sarah W. Whitman
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Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman (1842–1904) was an American artist and illustrator, stained glass designer, and author.[1]
Contents
Early years
Sarah Wyman was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1842 to banker William Wyman, but by her third birthday the family moved her to Baltimore, Maryland in the aftermath of her father's involvement in a bank scandal,[2] where she spent her childhood with her wealthy Wyman relatives. When she turned 11, she moved back to Lowell, in 1853 where her education was through tutoring and self-education.[3][4] At the age of 24, she married Henry Whitman, a prosperous wool merchant, and moved to Cambridge, then lived above a lively salon in a spacious townhouse in the crest of Beacon Hill.[5] And, summered on the Beverly Farms, an exclusive section of Boston's North Shore.
A late start for a professional artist, Sarah, at age 26, was first trained in Boston by William Morris Hunt, then in 1877 she went to Paris for a year, to study with Thomas Couture at the Villiers-le-Bel. Within a decade, Sarah was well established, and had her studio; "The Lily Glass Works" set up at 184 Boylston Street, Boston[6] and traveled widely, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Stained glass design
In the 1890s she focused on stained glass, and became one of the leading designer of stained glass windows, including two windows in Memorial Hall, Harvard side by side of three windows executed by Tiffany, as well as windows in the Schlesinger Library, and Trinity Church in Boston.
- Notable stained glass commissions
- Congregational Church, Worcester, MA (1884)[7]
- Christ Church, Andover, MA (1886)[7]
- Fogg Memorial Building at Berwick Academy, South Berwick, ME (1890–1894)[7]
- Trinity Church, Boston (1895)[7]
- Memorial Hall, Harvard University (1895–1897, 1900)[7]
- First Church Unitarian, Brookline, MA (1898–1901)[7]
- Memorial Hall, Bowdoin College (1903)[7]
Book illustrations & graphic design of book covers
In the course of 20 years, she worked with many authors designing the illustrations and covers of over 200 books,[8] with authors such as;
- "Our Hundred Days In Europe" by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
- "The Story of a Bad Boy" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich.[7]
- "An Island Garden" by Celia Thaxter.[1]
- "The King of Folly Island" by Sarah Orne Jewett.[1]
- "Betty Leicester" by Sarah Orne Jewett.[1]
- "Stangers and Wayfarers" by Sarah Orne Jewett.[1]
- "The Queen's Twin" by Sarah Orne Jewett.[1]
In her 1894 book "Women Illustrators", Author Alice Cordelia Morse says;
Mrs. Sarah W. Whitman of Boston and Margaret N. Armstrong have taken a firm hold on the publishers, and won recognition from the public, by their appropriate, tasteful, well-studied book decoration.
Painting
According to the August 7, 1901, New York Times article called "Art Awards at Buffalo", Sarah was honored with a Bronze Metal for her submitted work in the Pan-American Exposition: 'Paintings in oil, water color, pastel, and other recognized mediums; Miniatures, cartoons' category. Artist, such as; Edwin Austin Abbey, John White Alexander and James Whistler took Gold in the competition.
Sarah's notable paintings include:
- "Afternoon on the Essex River"
- "Roses—Souvenir de Villier le bel" (1877 or 1879) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[9]
- "Autumn Marshes" (1882) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[10]
- "Song" (1883) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[11]
- "A Warm Night" (1889) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[11]
- "Niagara" (1892) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[11]
- portrait of Martin Brimmer (1892) displayed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts[11]
- portrait of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1892) displayed at the Moody Medical Library, University of Texas.[11]
- portrait "Evelyn" (1896)[11]
Author
Among her other talents was writing, as she authored;
- "The making of pictures: twelve short talks with young people"[12]
- "Robert Browning in his Relation to the Art of Painting"
Later years
In the later years, Sarah, having no children, moved in with her sister Mary Rice, where they shared a home on Portland Street in South Berwick, Maine. Sarah died in June 1904, at the age of 62.
Before her own death, her friend and business partner finished a literary project called "Letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman" published in 1907, three years after Whitman's passing.[1]
References
Many of Sarah Whitman's papers are housed at the Houghton Library's Special Collections at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.[13]
- ^ a b c d e f g "Illustrations from the first edition of Strangers and Wayfarers". The Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project. Coe College. http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/saw/saw-ill.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Old-Time New England" Spring/Summer 1999
- ^ http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=20582
- ^ http://bwht.org/whitman
- ^ "Stained Glass Pragmatism" by Francis G. Hutchins, January 2009
- ^ "Annual New Gallery exhibition of contemporary American art, 1st Edition" (Nov. 21 – Dec. 18, 1900)
- ^ a b c d e f g h "LETTERS: Sarah Wyman Whitman". The Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project. Coe College. http://www.public.coe.edu/~theller/soj/let2soj/whitman.html. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ http://harvardmagazine.com/2008/01/sarah-wyman-whitman
- ^ http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=31248
- ^ http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=31922
- ^ a b c d e f "Sarah (de St. Prix) Wyman Whitman (1842–1904)". U.S. Women Painters: 1893 Exposition. November 6, 2008. http://members.cox.net/academia2/cassatt6k.html#whitman. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/dl/ww/001873859
- ^ http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~hou00413
External links
- Sarah Wyman Whitman Bindings The Boston Public Library's collection of Sarah Wyman Whitman bindings on Flickr.com
Categories:- 1842 births
- 1904 deaths
- American artists
- American illustrators
- American stained glass artists and manufacturers
- American writers
- American graphic designers
- People from York County, Maine
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