Janet Scudder was born in Indiana in 1869. She enjoyed drawing as a child, and upon graduation from high school enrolled in the Cincinnati Art Academy. In her first year, she decided that she would be a sculptor.
The 1892–1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ expedition to America, was perhaps the greatest event held in 19th century America. Laredo Taft was commissioned as a sculptor for the event. At the time, women were not as accepted in art as they are now. Taft wanted to hire a few talented women, including Scudder as assistants, but first he had to confirm that the director would allow him to hire female assistants. The director said that Taft could hire anybody, even a bunch of white rabbits if they could get the work done. The women were hired, and were nicknamed the White Rabbits.
Janet Scudder – Young Diana (c1910) (1)
In 1894 Scudder went to Paris, and from then on divided her time between Europe and America. She had studios in both New York and Paris, and became well known among artists and the public on both sides of the Atlantic. She was active in the women’s suffrage movement.
Janet Scudder – Young Diana (c1910) (2)
Young Diana, one of Scudder’s most famous pieces, was created early in the 20th century. Betty Burroughs, daughter of the painter Bryson Burroughs and sculptor Edith Burroughs, was the model for Young Diana. Diana, patron deity of hunting, is usually depicted as an adult woman with a bow and arrow. Scudder’s choice of a young girl instead of a woman proved to be very popular. Several versions of the figure were produced, four of which are shown here.
Janet Scudder – Young Diana (c1910) (3)
Janet Scudder – Young Diana (c1910) (4)
Indiana, Scudder’s native state, celebrated its centennial in 1916. Janet Scudder was commissioned by the state to design the official commemorative medallion. A nude girl stands by Columbia on the obverse of the medallion. Indiana in 1916 was a conservative and devoutly religious state, and remains so today. Today it is unlikely that an official state medallion would include a nude girl in its design. People were apparently more open-minded in 1916.
Janet Scudder – Indiana Medallion (1916)
Scudder gave use of her house near Paris to the Red Cross and YMCA for the duration of World War I. She also worked as a Red Cross volunteer at times during the war. For this service, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1925. After being exposed to the suffering of war, Scudder was dismayed that many public statues in post-war America seemed to celebrate the war. Scudder said, “I won’t add to this obsession of male egotism …My work was going to make people feel cheerful and gay, nothing more!”
Janet Scudder – Seaweed Fountain (1914) (1)
Janet Scudder – Seaweed Fountain (1914) (2)
Janet Scudder – Seaweed Fountain (1914) (3)
Many of Scudder’s sculptures were intended to be the center pieces of fountains. The following photos show some of her fountain statues.
Janet Scudder – La Douche (1916)
Janet Scudder – Young Girl With A Shell Fountain – (no date) (1)
Janet Scudder – Young Girl With A Shell Fountain – (no date) (2)
Janet Scudder – Young Girl With Frogs Fountain – (no date)
I’ve been bugged that I couldn’t find the pictures of ‘Young Diana’ so I kept searching and finally found them. It was a different ‘Young Diana’ by Anna Hyatt Huntington in Brookgreen Gardens. I made the same comment about Sturges there. I also tried looking for an online reference to that fact but can’t find it anymore.
An essay by Sonia Coman at http://annahyatthuntington.weebly.com/female-sociability-and-solidarity.html
states that “the artist may have modeled at least one of her Dianas on the film actress Bette Davis. In the 1980s, the elderly actress declared she was 18 when she posed for a woman sculptor for a fountain piece called Spring; soon after, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts announced having discovered that statue: not Spring, but a Young Diana of either 1923-24 or 1926 by Hyatt Huntington.”
Did Betty Burroughs marry somebody called Sturges and have a son called Jock? I read somewhere that his mother was the nude model for a Young Diana sculpture. I thought I kept pictures of it, but I can’t find it.
Betty Burroughs was born in 1899, and was married to painter Reginald Marsh from 1923 to 1933. Later she married a man named Woodhouse, and she was called Betty Burroughs Woodhouse during an interview in 1979. The photographer Jock Sturges was born in 1947. Betty would have been 48 at the time, so it is possible that she could have been married to a man named Sturges and had a baby, then married Woodhouse later. In a very brief research of the internet, I did not find any information about Betty Burroughs between the years 1933 and 1979, nor did I find any information about the parents of jock Sturges.