Helen Farnsworth Mears was born in Oshkosh in 1871 and went on to gain national recognition. Her works are in the Smithsonian (bust of medical pioneer Dr. William Morton), New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (bas-relief of composer Edward MacDowell) and other national and state collections. Her nine-foot statue of temperance leader Frances Willard is the only sculpture of a woman by a woman in the Hall of Statuary in the nation’s capitol. The Fountain of Life, the musical which celebrates her life, is also the title of one of Mears’s major works.

Mears was the youngest of three daughters born to John and Mary Elizabeth Mears. (The latter was a poet, author and Wisconsin’s first native playwright. In 1858, she wrote a play based on the life of the Indian Chief Blackhawk, which played in Madison to great acclaim.) Helen was closest in age and in temperament to her sister, Mary. Like her mother, Mary pursued a career as a writer. She wrote four novels and numerous articles and short stories, many published in national magazines. In addition to pursuing her own craft, Mary devoted herself to her younger sister’s career as a sculptor, and after Helen’s death in 1916, Mary spent her life working to ensure that her sister’s artistic legacy would live on.

Helen’s talent developed early. As a toddler she is said to have sculpted human and animal forms from pieces of bread. During her teens her Aunt Helen Farnsworth left her a legacy to pursue her artistic studies. To honor her aunt, Helen, who had been christened “Nellie,” took her aunt’s name. The money allowed both Helen and Mary to go to Chicago, where Helen studied at the Art Institute. At the age of 21 Mears was given her first commission, by the state of Wisconsin, to create “an heroic figure” to be exhibited at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Mears sculpted a dramatic full-sized female figure draped in a flag with her hand cradling the neck of an eagle. She was awarded a $500 prize by the Wisconsin Federation of Women’s Clubs for the work, which she titled “Genius of Wisconsin.” (The Wisconsin Federation of Women’s Clubs have remained staunch supporters of Mears. Since 1926 the organization has presented annual Helen Farnsworth Mears Art Awards to 7th and 8th grade art students throughout the state.)

Mears’s “Genius of Wisconsin” brought her to the attention of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, the most famous and respected sculptor of the time. Mears went on to become Saint-Gaudens first female assistant. She studied and worked with him in New York, and later in Paris. Helen and Mary were part of the Cornish Colony-the group of artists, writers and musicians who frequented Aspet, Saint-Gaudens’ home in Cornish, N.H. Mears’s bas-relief portrait of Saint-Gaudens is displayed at Aspet-now a national historic site. After this apprenticeship, Mears decided to make her way independently--a revolutionary decision for a female sculptor at that time. She and Mary, returned to Oshkosh, then moved again to New York, where the two worked side-by-side as artist and author.

Helen’s work brought her awards and recognition but not great financial reward. She died in New York in 1916, reportedly in part as a result of malnutrition. However, more than 125 years after her birth, she remains one of Wisconsin’s premier sculptors, and her life and work continue to be an inspiration.

 

© 2003 Mary Hiles