Elisabet Ney was a progressive woman, sculptor, and an advocate for the arts. Biographies, such as Elisabet Ney Sculptor by Bride Neill Taylor, portray her as a highly regarded woman who inspired others to continue her advocacy for the arts after her death. However, she was criticized during her life because she did not fit into society. She did not allow social pressures to persuade her to live within certain social rules. Elisabet did not see the need to dress like other women, identifying the dress code as monstrous because of it’s inability to show the true female figure. After all, she was a sculptor who appreciated the human body and its beauty! Therefore, today, June 29, we remember Elisabet Ney on the the day of her death in 1907.
“She and her husband, Edmund D. Montgomery, moved to Texas in 1872 and purchased Liendo Plantation in Waller County.
She built a studio (now the Elisabet Ney Museum) in the Hyde Park area of Austin in 1892 and began lobbying notable citizens and the state legislature for commissions.
During the next fifteen years she completed a number of portrait busts as well as statues of Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, now in the state Capitol, and a memorial to Albert Sidney Johnston, in the State Cemetery. Copies of the Austin and Houston statues are also in the United States Capitol. In addition to her sculpting, Ney took an active role in artistic and civic activities in Austin.” The Handbook of Texas Online.
New Vocabulary :
sursum =‘Lift up your hearts’ or from below, up
“It represents two children, a boy and girl, with heads uplifted and eyes directed upward, moving toward a height. It is a work of intense conviction and conveys unmistakably the fixed ideas of her life. The girl leads, the boy follows resting his hand on her shoulder. Both say, “Upward,” in every line of their figures, but the inspiration is all from the girl.” Bride Neill Taylor
What do you see in her sculpture?
Elisabet was the subject of gossip but never let it get her down. She continued to produce important artwork. What about her, do you think, was so fascinating that compelled people to spread negative rumors? Bride Neill Taylor mentions that the people of Austin had a problem with the way she dressed.
Have you ever experienced this type of gossip? How do you think her circumstances were different from yours? Has time changed social behaviors or rules in the last 100 years?
Even though she faced ridicule throughout her life for being different, four years after her death, a number of her supporters founded the Texas Fine Arts Association in her honor.”
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