Object details
Accession number
S27w15
Creators
Full title
Mildred Howells
Creation Date
1897
Object Case
Sargent / Whistler Case
Provenance
Entered Isabella Stewart Gardner's collection after 1897.
Marks
Inscribed, signed and dated (obverse): MILDRED HOWELLS MDCCCXCVII A ST G
Dimensions
7.2 cm (2 13/16 in.)
Display Media
Gilded bronze
Web Commentary
Mildred Howells (1873-1966) was a painter, watercolorist, and poet and the daughter of the novelist William Dean Howells (1837-1920). Isabella Stewart Gardner was acquainted with William Dean Howells and collected several of his books for her library. She also clipped articles about him from newspapers including a charming picture of him with his grandchildren.
Isabella and William had many mutual friends including the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. On 2 May 1897 Saint-Gaudens wrote to William Dean Howells suggesting that he and Mildred sit for a portrait. Shortly thereafter, Saint-Gaudens began work in his New York studio creating three separate reliefs including a double portrait and two medallions of Mildred. This medallion, and one other of the same size and subject in a private collection, show Saint-Gaudens's sensitive modelling of Mildred's fine features.
Isabella placed this portrait in the Sargent/Whistler Case in the Long Gallery alongside correspondence from Saint-Gaudens and other contemporary artists in her circle.
Permanent Gallery Location
Long Gallery
Bibliography
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 249.
Susan West Day. "Two Medals by Saint-Gaudens." Fenway Court (Aug. 1968), pp. 9-16, ill. 12.
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston: 1977), pp. 160-61, no. 203.
Susan West Day. "Two Medals by Saint-Gaudens." Fenway Court, vol. 2, no. 2 (Aug. 1968), pp. 9-16.
John Dryfhout. The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Hanover and London, 1982), pp. 232-33, no. 168.
Emamanuelle Héran. Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1848-1907: Un maître de la sculpture américaine. Exh. cat. (Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, 1999), pp. 184-85, no. 94.
Tanya Karpiak. "The medallic secrets of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum." The Medal (Autumn 2014), pp. 17-18, fig. 6.
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.