Description

We find it very difficult to find affordable sculpture, let alone affordable sculpture by a female artist.  But here we have a beautiful plaster one of Isadora Duncan by noted Philadelphia figurative sculptor and teacher Beatrice Fenton. The use of plaster as a medium allowed Fenton to create incredibly intricate detail of the famous dancer's dress and hair. Interestingly, one of Fenton's teachers was sculptor Alexander Stirling Calder, father of Alexander "Sandy" Calder III who is most recognized for his fabulous mobiles.

Details

• Beatrice Fenton (American, 1887-1983)
• Isadora Duncan (first half 20th century)
• Plaster sculpture with terracotta paint
  
• Signed in base
  
• 14 3/4" tall
  
• Excellent condition with damage to hands expertly repaired by Broken Art Restoration in Chicago

About the Artist

Beatrice Fenton was born on July 12, 1887 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Lizzie Spear and Dr. Thomas Hanover Fenton, an art patron and head of the Art Club of Philadelphia. Beatrice's drawings of animals at the Philadelphia Zoo caught her father's attention. After showing them to his friend, the well-known painter Thomas Eakins, Eakins suggested that she take lessons in sculpture.  And thus began a course of study at the School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she was taught by Charles Grafty and Alexander Stirling Calder. Fenton became an instructor herself at the Moore College of Art and Design (formerly the Philadelphia School of Art for Women), teaching there from 1942 to 1953.

Works by Fenton were shown at PAFA's annual exhibition most years from 1911 to 1964, and she was awarded the George D. Widener Memorial Gold Medal in 1922 for Seaweed Fountain. She was a member of the National Sculpture Society, and her Nereid Fountain was featured in the NSS exhibition of 1929. A cast of Seaweed Fountain has been in the Brookgreen Gardens collection since 1934.

She died in Philadelphia in 1983.