Joanna Quiner

Joanna Quiner (August 27, 1796 – September 20, 1868) was an American seamstress and self-taught sculptor.

Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Quiner was the daughter of Abraham Quiner, Jr. and Susannah Camell.[1] For much of her early life she worked as a seamstress, both in her hometown and in nearby Salem; she did some upholstery for the family of Theodore Parker, and came to admire his views. In 1838 she took a position in the household of Seth Bass, librarian of the Boston Athenaeum. She lived in the Athenaeum building with the Bass family; sculptor Shobal Vail Clevenger kept studio space there, and she would observe him at work. One day she borrowed some of Clevenger's clay and crafted a likeness of Seth Bass that was of such quality that he encouraged her to continue her art. She was forty-two at the time. She exhibited work at the Athenaeum in 1846–48, and in 1847 worked there briefly as a gallery attendant in the Orpheus Room, but ill health combined with financial pressures caused her to give up sculpting and return to sewing in her last years.[2] Quiner died either at her sister's residence in Lynn[3] or in her hometown of Beverly, and is buried in the Central Cemetery in Beverly.[1] A laudatory notice appeared in the Beverly Citizen around the time of her death.[4]

External image
Sculpture of Robert Rantoul at the Boston Athenæum

Quiner appears to have worked exclusively in plaster during her career.[5] Her best-known work is a portrait of Robert Rantoul, cast in plaster and presented to the Athenaeum in 1842;[2] it was the first sculpture by a woman to be shown there when it was exhibited in 1846.[6] She also crafted portrait busts of Fitch Poole, Alonzo Lewis, William H. Lovett, Andrew Thorndike, and James Frothingham,[2] whose own portrait of the sculptor is held by the Beverly Public Library.[7] In the Beverly Historical Society collection are portrait busts of the artist's father and of Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford, a good friend. Hanaford wrote a biographical sketch of Quiner,[2] and also penned two sonnets inspired by her and her work.[8]

References
  1. http://www.beverlyma.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FAMOUS-BEVERLY-BURIALS.pdf
  2. Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein (1990). American women sculptors: a history of women working in three dimensions. G.K. Hall. ISBN 978-0-8161-8732-4.
  3. The New England Historical & Genealogical Register and Antiquarian Journal. S.G. Drake. 1869. pp. 211–.
  4. Duane Hamilton Hurd (1888). History of Essex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. J.W. Lewis & Company. pp. 737–.
  5. Patricia Cronin; Maura Reilly; American Academy in Rome (2009). Harriet Hosmer: lost and found : a catalogue raisonné. Charta. ISBN 978-88-8158-732-2.
  6. "Robert Rantoul – Boston Athenæum". www.bostonathenaeum.org. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  7. "Joanna Quiner". npg.si.edu. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  8. Phebe Ann Hanaford (1871). From Shore to Shore: And Other Poems. B.B. Russell. pp. 88–.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.