Blanche Nevin
{{short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Blanche Nevin
| image = Flickr - USCapitol - Blanche Nevin (1838-1925) - Women Artists.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Blanche Nevin
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth-date|1841}}
| birth_place = Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1925|1841}}
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| education = Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Royal Art Academy in Venice
| field = Sculpture
| movement =
| works =
}}Blanche Nevin (1841–1925) was an American artist and poet. She is responsible for the sculpture of Revolutionary War General Peter Muhlenberg in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection, and was described by Lanchester History website as " the nation’s first noteworthy sculptress".[http://www.lancasterhistory.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=115:the-blanche-nevin-collection-1905-1940-mg-39-&catid=37:manuscript-groups&Itemid=57 Lancaster County Historical Society (Pa.): Finding aid to the Blanche Nevin Collection, 1905–1940]
Early life and education
She was born at Mercersburg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Dr. John Williamson Nevin (1803–1886), a theologian, teacher, and minister, and Martha Jenkins. She moved with her family to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1855, when her father became the president of Franklin & Marshall College.{{cite book |last1=Rubinstein |first1=Charlotte Streifer |title=American women sculptors : a history of women working in three dimensions |date=1990 |publisher=G.K. Hall |isbn=0816187320 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanwomenscu0000rubi/page/87 87] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomenscu0000rubi/page/87 }} She studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Joseph Alxis Bailly, at the Royal Art Academy in Venice, Italy, and at Carrara, Italy. She also traveled to China and Japan. She usually spent half her year at her home Windsor Forge Mansion and the other half abroad.{{cite web |url=https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce/SelectWelcome.asp |title=National Historic Landmarks & National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania |publisher=CRGIS: Cultural Resources Geographic Information System |format=Searchable database |access-date=2012-02-20 |archive-date=2007-07-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070721014609/https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce/SelectWelcome.asp |url-status=dead }} Note: This includes {{cite web |url=https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H070901_01H.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Windsor Forge Mansion |accessdate=2015-12-19 |author=Joan Deen and Mary Wiley Myers |date=1988-11-30 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150206095112/https://www.dot7.state.pa.us/ce_imagery/phmc_scans/H070901_01H.pdf |archivedate=February 6, 2015 }}
Career and mid-life
File:BlancheNevin Maude Muller marble PA catalogue opp. p.161.jpg
She exhibited a marble statue of Maud Muller at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. She exhibited it again at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where it was placed in the Woman's Building's Rotunda.{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893| url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt4c.html#nevin| accessdate=16 January 2019}} The statue is now owned by the Iris Club in Lancaster.[https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=153158C86693H.38755&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!358393~!6&ri=1&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Nevin,+blanche&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1 Maude Muller], from SIRIS.
Image:Peter Muhlenberg.jpg, in the National Statuary Hall Collection]]
In 1889, she sculpted the statue of Peter Muhlenberg on commission from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in the United States Capitol crypt. She also sculpted the bust of President Woodrow Wilson. She also sculpted "Lion in the Park" (1905) at Reservoir Park and the horse drinking fountain (1898) at the intersection of Columbia Avenue and West Orange Street in Lancaster. Her poems include: "Great-Grandma’s Looking-Glass" (1895), "One Usual Day" (1916), and "To My Door" (1921), and some of her poems are located at the Lancaster Historical Society, Pennsylvania.
In 1899, she bought Windsor Forge Mansion in Caernarvon Township, Pennsylvania. The house once belonged to her grandfather Robert Jenkins (1769–1848), who was a congressman and ironmaster. She restored the mansion house and added a studio. In 1913, she deeded the property to her nephew John Nevin Sayre. The grounds have three sculptures executed by Nevin, and they are contributing objects to the national historic district.
Legacy
Her life and works are captured in The Lion In The Park by Phyllis J.S. Brubaker.Brubaker, Phyllis J. S. The Lion in the Park: The Life and Works of Blanche Nevin : Biography and Poetry of Blanche Nevin the Sculptress and World Traveler, 1841-1925, Churchtown, Pennsylvania. Bethel, CT: Rutledge Books, 1997. Print.
File:In old Pennsylvania towns (1920) (14763955882).jpg|Blanche Nevin at Windsor Forge, ca. 1920
References
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External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Blanche Nevin}}
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Category:Artists from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Category:People from Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
Category:Writers from Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Category:Poets from Pennsylvania
Category:20th-century American sculptors
Category:19th-century American sculptors
Category:20th-century American women sculptors