Sculptor's Daughter by Tove Jansson, RARE 1st Edition Hardcover w/ DJ, 1969 Benn. Binding: Hardcover. Special Attributes: 1St Edition. First English language edition (UK, Ernest Benn) of the scarce, semi-autobiographical novel by the author of the famed 'Moomin' series for children. Book and dust jacket in solid overall condition. Lombardi Trophy sculptor's daughter wants apology from Tom Brady. Sculptor’s Daughter tells us as much about Jansson’s formative years and the genesis of her most famous creation as any biography could, in succinct, dreamlike prose shot through with striking.
“Margaret . . thinks she will stick to portraiture and be a specialist in portrait busts.” (Daniel Chester French letter to Mrs. Albert Miller. September 24, 1921)
One of my tasks as I continue to work on the Daniel Chester French Chesterwood Studio Reinterpretation Project is to locate images of Daniel Chester French’s daughter, Margaret French Cresson, in her father’s studio. The only child of the sculptor and his wife, Mary Adams French, Margaret spent many hours in the studio. I have come across photographs of her as a young girl, sitting in the reception room, frolicking in the gardens, and posing for her father. At five years old, Margaret was the model for the angels in the Clark Memorial (Forest Hill Cemetery, Massachusetts; plaster bas-relief maquettes on view in the studio), and as a young woman, she posed for Evangeline, one of the six poetic characters incorporated into the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Memorial (1912–14, Cambridge, Massachusetts).
Modeling for Evangeline, the Longfellow Memorial
As an adult, Margaret followed in her father’s rather large footsteps, and became a sculptor in her own right. This 1915 photograph (see below) shows her working on a portrait headin the Chesterwood studio, the southeast corner of the room clearly visible. It is exciting detective work to compare the 1915 photograph with a recent one: many of the objects on the shelves today were already in place in 1915. Objects which have not moved in almost one hundred years include the plaster model of St. Paul (1905, Minnesota State Capitol), the plaster head of Alma Mater (1902), and the Standing Baby plaster cast (1911), a component of the marble statue at the Old Federal Building in Cleveland. Above the shelf is a lion’s head mounted to a wooden beam, and tucked below the shelf are round and square bas-reliefs. Down the wooden beam at the middle of the shelf, a portrait head rests upon a bracket, and another lion head watches over the studio. Tucked into the corner are an architectural fragment, a relief portrait, and a boy’s head. There are also some objects which appear in the photograph but are no longer in the studio today, including a plaster Alma Mater, at the far left, a Greek Tragedy mask, and a framed set of photographs of equestrian monuments (which, in an interesting side-note, appears in a 1900 photograph of French’s New York studio).
Margaret French Cresson at work in the studio, 1915
Southeast corner of the Chesterwood Studio (photograph by Dana Pilson)
The Daniel Chester French material also includes some of French’s personal correspondence. Occasionally, letters relate to photographs, and putting “two and two” together is a thrilling component of this project. On August 27, 1916, French wrote with father’s pride to his close friend, the singer Rosalie Miller, “Margaret has just finished a study of a girl’s head which she is going to send to the Stockbridge exhibition — with my consent and approval. I want you to see it.” This is probably the work she is sculpting in the photograph above left.
Another image from about the same period shows Margaret, in fancy dress and sun hat, working side-by-side with her father who is also nattily attired in dress-shirt and bow tie (see below left). Margaret works on a portrait bust while her father seems to put finishing touches on Brooklyn (1913–16); a smaller-scale reduction of the Brooklyn is nearby. A related photograph (below right), dated on the back as “about 1926” but probably closer to 1915, also shows the two sculptors in the studio. French again poses next to Brooklyn and Margaret stands by a portrait head, a different one, however, from the work in the previous image. In this snapshot, Margaret has donned an artist smock which complements her smart hat and long skirt. Nothing of the studio except the back wall and door is visible.
Patrick Dougherty Sculptor
Sculptor's Daughter Tove Jansson
Margaret French Cresson and Daniel Chester French at work
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Margaret French Cresson and Daniel Chester French in the studio, 'about 1926'
Also in the archives is a holiday card from 1939, showing Margaret in the studio eight years after French’s death. She stands next to the final plaster model of Abraham Lincoln, the base adorned with a large wreath, clay pots on the floor similar to those currently in the studio. Behind her: the plaster working model of Immortal Love (1920), what appears to be one of the figures from the Samuel F. Dupont Memorial Fountain (Washington, D.C., 1917–21), and a large relief, possibly the full-size plaster model for Knowledge and Wisdom (Boston Public Library Doors, 1894–1904). Upon close examination of the photograph, I realized that the image must have been flopped. I created a mirror image, and then voilà! It finally made sense. The light coming in from the northern overhead sky-light windows now casts correct shadows upon the wreath, Margaret wears her watch on her left hand (in the photographs of her sculpting, it appears she is indeed a “righty”) and the Boston Public Library doors are to the left of Lincoln, where they are today.
Painter's Daughters Chasing A Butterfly
Margaret French Cresson's holiday card, 1939, as printed
The Sculptor's Daughter
More Margaret French Cresson material awaits my examination, and I look forward to getting to know her better not only as French’s daughter and the eventual inheritor, caretaker, and donator of Chesterwood, but as a talented sculptor and gifted artist.
All photographs and images are courtesy Chapin Library, Williams College, Gift of the National Trust for Historic Preservation/Chesterwood, a National Trust Historic Site, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, except where noted Udemy unity.
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