EDITH BARRETTO STEVENS PARSONS (Houston 1878 – New York 1956)
A Pair of Terrier Dogs
standing Terrier signed E•B•PARSONS• © on the base with foundry mark Gorham Co Founders OFCP on the back
running Terrier signed E•B•PARSONS• © on the base with foundry mark Gorham Co Founders OFCO on the back
both bronze
standing Terrier: height 4 ¾ inches (12.5 cm.), length 6 ¾ inches (17.5 cm.)
running Terrier: height 2 ⅞ inches (7.7 cm.), length 7 ⅞ inches (20.5 cm.)
A pupil of the Art Students League of New York in New York City under sculptors Daniel Chester French (1850 – 1931) and George Grey Barnard (1863 – 1938), Parsons is best known for her sculptures of animals and children.[1] Born Edith Barretto Stevens, Parsons studied the arts and was active in New York City, where she was a member of the National Sculpture Society and the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. However, she also exhibited sculptures and larger public works, such as the garden sculptures for which she is most recognized today, across the United States. Her work has notably been shown at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Art Institute of Chicago; Diamond M Art Collection, Snyder, Texas; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Liberal Arts Building, St. Louis, Missouri.[2]
This adorable pair of bronze Terriers was produced by Gorham Manufacturing Company – specifically their Bronze Division, developed circa 1890 – as marked on the base of each sculpture.[3] The two dogs, who when placed together take on the narrative of playfully chasing one another, capture the “cheerful and mirth-provoking” nature that Parsons’ sculptures are loved for, and which her work delighted visitors at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.[4]
[1] Glenn B. Opitz, ed., Dictionary of American Sculptors, “18th Century to the Present,” Apollo, Poughkeepsie, New York, 1984, p. 306; and F. Turner Reuter, Jr., Animal Sporting Artists in America, The National Sporting Library, Middleburg, Virginia, 2008, p. 546.
[2] F. Turner Reuter, Jr., p. 546.
[3] Michael Edward Shapiro, Bronze casting and American sculpture, 1850–1900, University of Delaware Press, Newark, Delaware, 1985, p. 171.
[4] Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1990, p. 162.