1. Brenda Putnam was an American sculptor, teacher and author.
31 Facts About Brenda Putnam
1. 2.
Brenda Putnam was the daughter of Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth Munroe.
3.
Brenda Putnam attended the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC, where she first was taught to sculpt.
4.
Brenda Putnam trained as a classical pianist, and toured with violinist Edith Rubel and cellist Marie Roemaet as the Edith Rubel Trio.
5.
Brenda Putnam studied at the Corcoran Museum Art School in Washington, DC.
6.
Early in her career, Putnam was noted for her busts of children and for garden and fountain figures.
7.
Brenda Putnam exhibited an overtly sensual piece at the National Academy of Design in 1915, Charmides [Dialogue], a nude woman and man asleep together, which was described as "Rodin-like".
8.
Brenda Putnam modeled a series of busts of musicians, including Metropolitan Opera conductor Artur Bodanzky, Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch, British pianist Harold Bauer, and Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska.
9.
Brenda Putnam had a success with her life-size, three-quarter-length, bas-relief portrait of William Dean Howells, for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
10.
About 1920, sculptor Anna Hyatt and Brenda Putnam rented an apartment and studio at 49 West 12th Street, Manhattan.
11.
Brenda Putnam exhibited three works as part of the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.
12.
Brenda Putnam created bas-relief murals for two US post offices under the Works Progress Administration.
13.
Brenda Putnam seriously injured her arm in an industrial accident during World War II.
14.
Brenda Putnam gave up creating large-scale works and concentrated on busts and smaller pieces.
15.
Brenda Putnam was commissioned to create the Admiral Ernest Joseph King Congressional Gold Medal, awarded by a Special Act of Congress, March 22,1946, for Admiral King's distinguished leadership of US Naval Forces in World War II.
16.
Brenda Putnam created three bas-relief portrait busts for the House of Representatives chamber in the United States Capitol.
17.
Brenda Putnam's last completed sculpture was the Bust of Susan B Anthony for the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.
18.
Brenda Putnam had made the stylistic transition from Academic to Art Deco, but she was no fan of post-war Modernism.
19.
On behalf of the conservative National Sculpture Society, Brenda Putnam vehemently advocated that The Met purchase realist works.
20.
Brenda Putnam exhibited at the 1911 International Exhibition of Art and History in Rome.
21.
Brenda Putnam exhibited regularly at the National Academy of Design beginning in 1911, where Sea Horse Sundial won the 1922 Barnett Prize, and Mid-Summer won the 1935 Waltrous Gold Medal.
22.
Brenda Putnam exhibited at the National Sculpture Society's exhibitions, including 1916,1923,1929, and 1940.
23.
Brenda Putnam exhibited regularly at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts between 1910 and 1944, and won the 1923 Widener Gold Medal for Sea Horse Sundial.
24.
Brenda Putnam won the 1923 Prize for Sculpture from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors for [add work].
25.
Brenda Putnam was elected an associate member of the National Academy in 1934, and an academician in 1936.
26.
Brenda Putnam was elected to the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors in [year], and designed them a 7-sided Art Deco medal in 1941 when they changed their name to the National Association of Women Artists.
27.
Brenda Putnam had a 30-year career teaching at various institutions and privately.
28.
Brenda Putnam incorporated that experience into her book, The Sculptor's Way: A Guide to Modeling and Sculpture, first published in 1939.
29.
Brenda Putnam never married, but maintained long friendships with a number of her students.
30.
Brenda Putnam retired to Wilton, Connecticut in the early 1950s.
31.
Brenda Putnam moved to Concord, New Hampshire in 1971, where she died in 1975.