Hélène Sardeau (July 7, 1899March 23, 1969) was an American sculptor, born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, who moved with her family to the United States when she was about 14 years old.

Early years

Sardeau arrived in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1913. She studied at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

, the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

, and at the School of American Sculpture, all in New York City. She studied with

Mahonri Young Mahonri Mackintosh Young (August 9, 1877 – November 2, 1957) was an American social-realist sculptor and artist. During his lengthy career, he created more than 320 sculptures, 590 oil paintings, 5,500 watercolors, 2,600 prints, and thousand ...

. In the 1920s, she and he sister, Mathilde, created decorative portrait dolls depicting actors and actresses. She is credited with the masks for the 1927 film ''Prometheus in Chains''.

Career

She was a founding member of the

Sculptors Guild Sculptors Guild, a society of sculptors who banded together to promote public interest in contemporary sculpture, was founded in 1937. Signatories to the original corporation papers (Sculptors Guild, Inc.) were Sonia Gordon Brown, Berta Margoulie ...

. Her first major commission was ''The Slave'' (1940), completed as part of the Central Terrace of the Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial in Philadelphia and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art before its permanent installation. Her terra cotta sculpture, ''The Lovers'' (1937), was included in the Museum of Modern Art's ''Three Centuries of American Modernism'' (May 24–July 31, 1938), an exhibition that also traveled to the Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris. In 1942, Brazil's Minister of Education commissioned Sardeau and her husband, George Biddle, for sculptural reliefs and mural paintings, respectively, at the National Library in Rio de Janeiro, for which Sardeau sculpted on the themes of violence and compassion. In the summer of 1949, she was one of 254 sculptors who exhibited in the

3rd Sculpture International 3rd Sculpture International was a 1949 exhibition of contemporary sculpture held inside and outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It featured works by 250 sculptors from around the world, and ran from May 15 ...

held at the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

. In ''Life'' magazine's photograph of the International, she is pictured in the second row from the front, fourth from the left.

Personal life

Sardeau was the wife of painter

George Biddle George Biddle (January 24, 1885 – November 6, 1973) was an American painter, muralist and lithographer, best known for his social realism and combat art. A childhood friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he played a major role in establi ...

. They had a son named Michael John. Her papers can be found in the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Work

* In many private collections and: * ''Amazon'',

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York City (1933) * ''Sailors of the United States Mails (full-scale model, Ossining, NY Post Office)'', plaster with metal armature and hemp, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (1936) * ''The Slave'', limestone, Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial,

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

, Philadelphia (1940) * ''Negro Lament'',

(1941) * ''Planting'', ''Mother and Child'', ''Reaping'', post office reliefs, metal, Greenfield, MA (ca. 1941) * Reliefs for the National Library of Brazil, soapstone, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1942) * ''Icarus'', plaster and bronze (1951) * ''Kneeling Woman'', bronze,

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York City (1955) * ''Rape of the Sabine'', Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. * ''Untitled'', relief print, woodcut, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, MD (n.d.)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sardeau, Hélène 1899 births 1968 deaths 20th-century American sculptors Federal Art Project artists Modern sculptors Sculptors from New York City Art Students League of New York alumni Sculptors from New York (state) Artists from Antwerp Belgian emigrants to the United States 20th-century American women sculptors