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.
Evelyn Longman (Batchelder)
Sculpture
1874 – 1954
- Biography/Description of Work
Creator of Bushnell Park’s Spirit of Victory, Evelyn Beatrice Longman Batchelder was a longtime resident of Windsor. She was already a respected sculptor, having worked with Daniel Chester French starting in 1901, and creating works such as wreaths and eagles on the Lincoln Memorial, chapel doors at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, and the Illinois Centennial Monument in Chicago in the first two decades of the 20th century. In 1918, she came to Connecticut to fulfill a commission for the Loomis-Chafee School headmaster, Nathanial Horton Batchelder, and married him in 1920. She had a studio on the school campus, and her work can be found in Windsor, Hartford and other Connecticut communities. Batchelder was the first woman to be allowed full membership in the National Academy of Design in 1919. She had discovered her love of sculpture after visiting the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at the age of 19, and shorty after began studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating with highest honors in 1900.
- Sources view
- Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame: http://www.cwhf.org/inductees/arts-humanities/evelyn-longman-batchelder/
UConn Artists database listed under Longman
Wigren, Christopher, CPN - Associated Resource(s)