Luella A. Varney Serrao
{{short description|American sculptor}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Luella A. Varney Serrao
| image = Photo of Luella A. Varney Serrao.jpg
| imagesize =
| caption = Luella Varney as a young sculptor in Rome
| birth_name = Luella A. Varney
| birth_date = {{birth date|1863|8|11|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Angola, New York
| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=y|1948|12|26|1863|1|11}}
| death_place = Poughkeepsie, New York
| nationality = American
| education = University of Rome
| field = Sculpture
| training =
| movement =
| works =
| patrons =
| awards =
| spouse = {{marriage|Teodoro Serrao|1893|1907|end=died}}
| children = Arthur Varney
}}
Luella A. Varney Serrao (August 11, 1863 – December 26, 1948) was an American sculptor. She was known for her portraits of notable Americans.
Biography
Serrao née Varney was born on August 11th, 1863, in Angola, New York.Ancestry.com, Luella Varney Serrao, U. S. Passport Application, 16 October 1920. Accessed 7 December 2024. She moved to Cleveland as a young girl, where she studied at the Cleveland School of Art.Petteys, Chris, “Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900”, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985 p. 639 After high school she moved to Rome, Italy where she earned a degree from the University of Rome. In Rome she met the lawyer Teodoro Serrao whom she married there on February 12th, 1893.Ancestry.com, Mr. Theodore Serrao, U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current. Accessed 7 December 2024. They lived in Rome. Upon his death in 1907 she returned to Cleveland.{{cite journal |title=A portrait bust of Mary Baker Eddy |journal=Quarterly News - Longyear Museum and Historical Society |date=1991–92 |volume=28 |issue=Fall/Winter |pages=430–432 |url=https://www.longyear.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/LY_1991_Vol_28_No_34_Fall_Winter_QN.pdf |accessdate=26 September 2018}}{{cite web |title=Madame Luella A. Varney Serrao Bust of Mary Baker Eddy |url=https://www.marybakereddylibrary.org/research/madame-luella-a-varney-serrao-bust-of-mary-baker-eddy/ |website=Mary Baker Eddy Library |accessdate=26 September 2018 |date=1 September 2012}}
Serrao created portraits of Susan B. Anthony, William Howard Brett,{{Cite web |title=William Howard Brett, Marble Bust |url=https://cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4014coll10/id/346/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |website=cplorg.contentdm.oclc.org |language=en}} Mary Baker Eddy, Julia Ward Howe, Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain and Henry Mower Rice.{{sfn|Opitz|1986|p=838}}
She exhibited her work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago.{{cite web |title=Luella Varney Serrao |url=http://www.askart.com/artist_keywords/Luella_Varney_Serrao/10048660/Luella_Varney_Serrao.aspx |website=AskArt |accessdate=26 September 2018}}
Serrao exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and The Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.{{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/cassatt4d.html#varney| accessdate=26 September 2018}}
Her work, “An Archbishop of Odessa” can be found in the Roman Catholic Church in Odessa, Russia.{{cite book |editor-last=Opitz |editor-first=Glenn B. |title=Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers |publisher=Apollo Books |location=Poughkeepsie, NY |year=1986 |page=838}}
She died in 1948, aged 85.Ancestry.com, Luella Serrao, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1948. Accessed 7 December 2024.
The movie director Arthur Varney was her son.Robert Murphy (editor): Directors in British and Irish Cinema: A Reference Companion. British Film Institute, 2006.
Gallery
File:MonroeCountyHallOfJusticeFirstFloorAnthonyBust.jpg|Susan B. Anthony, {{circa}} 1884
File:Luella A. Varney Serrao - portrait of Mary Baker Eddy.jpg|Mary Baker Eddy, {{circa}} 1889
File:Luella A. Varney Serrao - portrait of Mark Twain.jpg|Mark Twain, {{circa}} 1892
File:Bust-Henry Rice,1906 (cropped).jpg|Henry Rice, {{circa}} 1910
File:William Howard Brett, Marble Bust - DPLA - 868ec1de812ad5879a7c8e44a66eeb7f.jpg|William Howard Brett, {{circa}} 1918
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Luella A. Varney Serrao}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serrao, Luella A. Varney}}
Category:19th-century American sculptors
Category:20th-century American sculptors
Category:People from Angola, New York
Category:Sculptors from New York (state)
Category:Artists from Cleveland
Category:Sapienza University of Rome alumni
Category:Cleveland School of Art alumni