Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Enid YANDELL
Enid Yandell is recognized as a pioneer among women sculptors and she was the first woman member of the National Sculpture Society. Like many other artists, her first real opportunity came at the time of the World' s Fair. Her figures on the Woman's Building were an outstanding artistic achievement, a vital part of the amazing poetic spirit which dominated the wonderful exposition. The statue of Daniel Boone in the Kentucky Building was also hers. Of late, Miss Yandell's name has become associated with sun-dials, fountains, and other out-of-doors subjects. The "Carrie Brown Memorial Fountain," given to Providence by Paul Bignotti as a memorial to his wife, is the triumph of her skill and inspiration. It shows the Struggle of Life. Miss Yandell works in marble and [p.121] in bronze. Many lovely heads of children are to her credit.
Miss Yandell's mother was an ardent worker for the betterment of social conditions, especially in helping women towards wider fields and better pay. It was natural that when her daughter, Enid, showed in her mud-pie days, a decided preference for modeling little figures, her talent was not frowned on as unlady-like but fostered and encouraged.
It was in Hampton College, Louisville, that this little girl began, and in later years, finished her education. She specialized in Chemistry and Art, receiving an A.B. degree. Equipped with a splendid general education which developed an intellectuality that is reflected in all her work, and braving the general protest that a girl could not be a sculptor, she began her study in the Cincinnati Art School. Here she took wood carving and became so much interested in sculpture that she abandoned the carving to go on with modelling under Louis Rebisso. She worked twelve hours a day, finishing the four years' course in two years.
On her return to Louisville, she went abroad with her mother and sisters for a six months' tour of Europe, visiting France, England, Germany, Italy, Austria, and other countries. When she reached Paris, she was very anxious to stay there and study sculpture. Her mother, advanced as she had been toward her daughter's study, showed herself a woman of her generation in feeling that her daughter was too young and should return to Louisville and enter society, probably getting married before starting on a career.
After a winter 's work and society in Louisville, there was a competition for a Confederate Monument, the designs and plans to be submitted anonymously. Miss Yandell and her friend, the architect, won the contest hands down. When the envelopes were opened and it was found she was a woman, in spite of the fact that her associate was a man, they refused to sign the contract, saying that no woman could erect the shaft seventy-five feet high.
A little later, Mrs. Potter Palmer wanted a woman to do the sculpture work on the Woman's Building at the Chicago Fair. There were no professional women sculptors in America thirty years ago. As far as Miss Yandell knows, Harriet Hosmer was the only American woman sculptor at that period and she was over sixty years of age and living in Florence. Miss Yandell went to Chicago, signed the contract and executed the sculpture on the Woman's Building, for which she received one of the seventy-three medals given the "Designers of the Columbian Exposition." Only three of these were given to women. Thus she created for women the profession of sculpture. During this time in Chicago, she studied in night school at the Chicago Art Academy.
After finishing the sculpture on the Woman's Building, she worked for and with Mr. Philip Martiny. It was in his studio at Jackson Park and under his supervision that she executed her statue of Daniel Boone, which was made for the Filson Kentucky Historical Society and was erected in front of the Kentucky Building at the World's Fair. The costume and gun as well as the powder horn and tomahawk belonged to Daniel Boone, so the details are authentic.
Miss Yandell was the first sculptor, male or female, to get to work in Jackson Park, Chicago, 1891, and, not having done anything in the art school larger than three feet, her statue nine feet for the caryatides for the Woman's Building promptly fell down. Not discouraged, she put in butterflies and armature and built them up again.
After the work was finished in Chicago, she went to New York and accepted a position as assistant to Mr. Karl Bitter. With him she had the privilege of working under Mr. Richard M. Hunt, the great architect, and of executing a large part of the figural ornaments for the Breakers at Newport and the Astor house in New York. It was at this period [p.122] that Mr. Bitter suggested she should become a member of the National Sculpture Society. There were only male members in it then. J. Q. A. Ward was its president. Daniel French, Karl Bitter and Philip Martiny were Miss Yandell's sponsors and the battle royal was fought as to whether a woman could be a member of the society or not. These men won out and Miss Yandell became the first woman member of the National Sculpture Society. There are now a great many gifted women belonging to this society and it has been proven that art is neither male or female. It is the work that counts no matter who does it.
A year later Miss Yandell went to Paris to study with Rodin and McMonnies, and to perfect her drawing. She worked three seances a day at drawing at the Academie Vitti and Carlorossi, putting in over twelve hours drawing—drawing, for it is all in that.
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