Ethel Painter Hood

{{Short description|American sculptor}}

Ethel Painter Hood (April 9, 1908At least one source gives a birthdate of 1906.{{Citation needed|date=March 2017}} – 1982) was an American sculptor.

Prior to becoming a sculptor, Hood had a varied career including stints as a marathon swimmer, writer, musician, and painter.{{cite book|author=Robin R. Salmon|title=Sculpture of Brookgreen Gardens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TSnn1u6qmekC&pg=PA81|year=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-6656-6|pages=81–}} A native of Baltimore, she was the daughter of John Mifflin Hood, Jr., a civil engineer, and Ethel Gilpin Panter, daughter of an inventor and cousin of Howard Pyle. Initially interested in a swimming career – she planned to try out for the Olympics – she traveled to Europe with her family in the summer of 1926, where she took painting lessons at the Académie Julian in Paris and wrote free-lance articles for Vogue. Back home in Baltimore she took up the violin, which led her, after encouragement, to further study in New York; while there she took classes in oil painting at the Art Students League under Ivan Olinsky. Once again returning to Baltimore, she determined upon sculpture as a career. Hood was most interested in portraiture; among those who sat for her were Beatrice Lillie and Helen Hayes. She taught herself principles from a textbook, but also had two years of lessons with Brenda Putnam.{{cite web|url=http://www.sternfinearts.com/etpahob1.html|title=Ethel Painter Hood (1906–1982)|publisher=|accessdate=18 February 2017}} Hood's work so impressed Gutzon Borglum that he invited her to work with him in the Black Hills, but she refused.{{cite book|author=Robert Joseph Casey|title=Give the man room: the story of Gutzon Borglum|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5wRDAQAAIAAJ|year=1952|publisher=Bobbs-Merrill}}

Hood showed her work throughout the United States during her career, and was a fellow of the National Sculpture Society and the National Association of Women Artists,{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}} as well as being named a member of the Fine Arts Commission in 1959. Brookgreen Gardens is among the collections holding examples of her work.