Overview
Harriet W. Frishmuth is celebrated for her decorative bronzes and garden sculpture of supple, athletic young women who embody the feeling of youthful vigor and joy. She was born into an upper-middle-class Philadelphian family in 1880. At an early age, Frishmuth moved to Europe and remained there for many years with her mother and two older sisters, where she became a proficient piano player and contemplated a career in music. It was not until she met an American woman sculptor in Switzerland that Frishmuth made her first attempts at modeling. At age nineteen, Frishmuth enrolled in a modeling class in Paris where Auguste Rodin visited biweekly and singled out Frishmuth’s work on occasion. Encouraged by her progress, Frishmuth transferred six months later to the Académie Colarossi in order to receive more regular study.
Frishmuth made her first debut in 1903 at the Salon with a portrait bust of a woman. Soon afterwards, she moved to Germany for two years and then returned to the United States where she settled in New York and took classes at the Art Students League under sculptors such as Gutzon Borglum and Herman Atkins MacNeil. In 1908 Frishmuth set up her own studio in New York. The first major showing of Frishmuth’s work occurred in 1912 at Gorham Galleries on Fifth Avenue in New York City in a group exhibition with numerous other outstanding women sculptors such as Anna V. Hyatt, Gertrude V. Whitney, Carol Brooks MacNeil and Enid Yandell.
There are signature formal elements in Frishmuth’s sculpture: raised heels, ankles and knees demurely pressed together, shoulders delicately hunched, elbows pulled into the body, and hand bent back with fingers splayed—all of these elements convey messages of coy femininity, vulnerability, and an undeniable measure of self-absorption.
Associations
Allied Artists of America
American Federation of Arts
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club
National Academy of Design
National Arts Club
National Association of Women Artists
National Sculpture Society
Philadelphia Ten
Exhibitions
Art Institute of Chicago
Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club
Golden Gate International exposition, 1939-1940, Honorable Mention
Grand Central Art Galleries, Prize
National Academy of Design
National Association of Women Artists
National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, Joan of Arc Silver Medal
National Sculpture Society
Panama Pacific Exhibition of 1915
Paris Salons
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Museums and Public Collections
Arkell Museum at Canajoharie
Ball State Museum of Art, Indiana
Brookgreen Gardens, Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, Californai
Canton Museum of Art, Ohio
Columbia Museum of Art, South Carolina
Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio
Como Park, Zoo, and Observatory, St. Paul, Minnesota
Currier Gallery of Art, New Hampshire
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Texas
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio
Farmington Community Library, Farmington Hills, Michigan
Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York
Forest Lawn Museum, Glendale, California
Grand Rapids Art Museum, Michigan
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
Kennedy Museum of Art, Ohio University
Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Mississippi
Louis and Alan Sellars Collection
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Montclair Art Museum
National Academy of Design Museum & School of Fine Arts
National Museum of Wildlife Art, Wyoming
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut
Rice and Gracelawn Cemetery, Elkhart, Indiana
Syracuse University Art Collection
University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa
Washington County Museum of Fine Arts
Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania