With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Laura Gardin Fraser
Sculpture
1889 – 1966
- Biography/Description of Work
Born in Chicago, Laura Gardin studied under sculptor James Earle Fraser at the Art Students League in New York from 1910 to 1912. They married soon after, in 1913, and built a large studio in Westport, Connecticut. Like her husband, she continued to work as a sculptor, starting with relatively small pieces of babies, horses and dogs and later designing fountains and large-scale animal commissions. She is however best known for her medal designs, including the Morse medal for the American Geographic Society, and a number of U.S. coins, notably the Oregon Trail Memorial half dollar. Her sculptures “Nymph and Satyr” and “Baby Goat” were acknowledged with prizes at the National Academy of Design in 1916 and 1920 respectively. In 1924, she was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1931. That same year, she was the winner of the competition to design a new quarter with George Washington on the obverse. However her winning design was ignored by the then-Treasury Secretary, Andrew Mellon, who selected a design by John Flanagan. Fraser’s design was coined as a commemorative five-dollar gold piece in 1999.
- Sources view
- Uconn database, Heller and Heller: North American Women Artists of the 20th century, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Gardin_Fraser, http://www.meadowlarkgallery.com/FraserLaura.htm, http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=42905366, http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/research/findingaids/collections/fraser.aspx, http://www.graham1857.com/artists/laura-gardin-fraser/, http://bronze-gallery.com/sculptors/artist.cfm?sculptorID=116, http://www.nysmhs.org/HISTORY/LAURAGARDINFRASER/INDEX.HTM Laura Gardin Fraser Article - New York Times - 1926-4-11, Laura Gardin Fraser Article - New York Times - 1953-4-17, Laura Gardin Fraser Article - New York Times - 1953-8-15, Laura Gardin Fraser Article - The Hartford Courant - 1946-12-6, Laura Gardin Fraser Obituary - New York Times - 1966-8-14
- Associated Resource(s)