Gertrude Biggs Colburn (1885 – November 10, 1968) was an American dancer, dance teacher and sculptor. Colburn was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, the third of four daughters born to artist Alfred Bland Biggs (1856–1887) of

Winchester, Virginia Winchester is the most north western independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Frederick County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Winchester wit ...

and Martha Virginia Dumax of Maryland. Her father died when she was young; her mother, just 28 when she was first widowed, supported herself and her four daughter creating trousseaus for Baltimore's wealthiest families. She eventually had a large staff of 30 sewing her designs. Colburn studied at Western High School in Baltimore and the

Louis H. Chalif Normal School of Dancing Louis Harvy Chalif (December 25, 1876November 25, 1948) was a Ukrainian dance instructor and an author. His name is also recorded as Louis Harvey Chalif. Born in Odessa, he was one of the first Ukrainian dance instructors to teach in the United S ...

in New York. In 1918, she married dentist Walter Herbert Colburn. Colburn spent part of each week in Baltimore, where she was a dance teacher from 1916 to 1931 at the

Peabody Conservatory The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University is a private conservatory and preparatory school in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1857 and opened in 1866 by merchant/financier and philanthropist George Peabody (1795–1869) ...

. Starting out with just 12 students, her classes grew to more than 750 when she left in 1931. She took up sculpting after an accidental fall down the stairs at the Peabody abruptly ended her teaching career and she was confined to her bed.gallery biographical listing
("Information courtesy of MD Commission on Artistic Property, MD State Archives and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University." Her sculptures, often depicting dancers in motion, were created in

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...

, and

ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain ...

, in a broadly

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style. Colburn's

plaster cast A plaster cast is a copy made in plaster of another 3-dimensional form. The original from which the cast is taken may be a sculpture, building, a face, a pregnant belly, a fossil or other remains such as fresh or fossilised footprints – p ...

of the hands of the Swiss-born American artist

Adolfo Müller-Ury Adolfo Müller-Ury, KSG (March 29, 1862 – July 6, 1947) was a Swiss-born American portrait painter and impressionistic painter of roses and still life. Heritage and early life in Switzerland He was born Felice Adolfo Müller on 29 March ...

(1862–1947) now belongs to the

Preservation Society of Newport County The Preservation Society of Newport County is a private, non-profit organization based in Newport, Rhode Island. It is Rhode Island's largest and most-visited cultural organization. The organization protects the architectural heritage of Newpor ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. It was formerly in the collection of the radio soprano

Jessica Dragonette Jessica Valentina Dragonette (February 14, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a singer who became popular on American radio and was active in the World War II effort. Early life Born in Calcutta, India, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as Jessica Valent ...

and the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

at Laramie. Colburn died in

Morristown, New Jersey Morristown () is a town and the county seat of Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. ...

, after a short illness, aged 82.

References

20th-century American sculptors 1885 births 1968 deaths Entertainers from Baltimore Artists from Baltimore Sculptors from Maryland {{US-sculptor-stub