1. Janet Scudder, born Netta Deweze Frazee Scudder, was an American sculptor and painter from Terre Haute, Indiana, who is best known for her memorial sculptures, bas-relief portraiture, and portrait medallions, as well as her garden sculptures and fountains.
Janet Scudder displayed her work at numerous national and international exhibitions in the United States and in Europe from the late 1890s to the late 1930s.
Janet Scudder was a member of New York State Woman Suffrage Association, the art committee of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, and in 1920, was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design.
Janet Scudder's work is represented in the collections of the Musee d'Orsay in the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in France, and in the United States at the Library of Congress, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Peabody Institute, Brookgreen Gardens, the Huntington Library, Art Gallery and Botanical Gardens, the Indianapolis Museum of Art; the Indiana State Museum, the Indiana Historical Society, the Swope Art Museum, and the Richmond Art Museum.
Netta Deweze Frazee Janet Scudder was born on October 27,1869, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to Mary and William Hollingshead Janet Scudder.
Janet Scudder's father was a confectioner who was active in community affairs.
Janet Scudder's mother died at the age of thirty-eight, when "Nettie" Scudder was five years old.
Janet Scudder enjoyed drawing as a child and took Saturday art classes at Rose Polytechnic Institute of Technology under the direction of Professor William Ames.
In 1891, Janet Scudder moved to Chicago to live with her brother and his family while she attended classes at the Art Institute of Chicago under the direction of John Vanderpoel and Frederick Freer.
Janet Scudder left the job because the union did not permit women members.
Janet Scudder was commissioned to create a figure of Justice for the exposition's Illinois Building and modeled the Nymph of Wabash sculpture for the Indiana Building at the fair.
Janet Scudder traveled to France with Zulime Taft and persuaded MacMonnies to hire her.
At the age of twenty-five, Janet Scudder became the first woman he employed at his atelier.
Janet Scudder assisted MacMonnies on projects such as his Shakespeare for the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in addition to studying at the Academie Vitti and at the Academie Colarossi.
Janet Scudder abruptly left MacMonnies's Paris studio in 1896, after a colleague gave her the inaccurate impression that he disapproved of her work.
Janet Scudder was especially adept at bas-relief portraiture, which became a specialty.
In 1898 Janet Scudder returned to Paris for more training, resuming drawing classes at Academie Colorossi.
Janet Scudder brought Frog Fountain to New York City, where architect Stanford White bought a bronzed cast of it for his estate on Long Island.
Janet Scudder produced five versions of this fountain, with the last one made for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Janet Scudder contributed a decorative figure representing Music to the 1900 Paris Exposition, and created other versions of garden fountains, most notably Tortoise Fountain and Young Diana, the latter of which earned an honorable mention at the Salon of 1911.
Janet Scudder created at least thirty fountains as commissions for the homes of wealthy Americans.
Janet Scudder received a commission from the Indiana Historical Commission to design a commemorative medal for Indiana's centennial in 1916.
Janet Scudder exhibited at the Hoosier Salon in Indiana in 1926,1927,1933, and 1934; the International Exposition, 1937; and at the 1939 New York World's Fair.
Janet Scudder's work was part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Janet Scudder became involved in women's suffrage movement in New York in 1915 and was a member of New York State Woman Suffrage Association.
Janet Scudder was a member of the art committee of the National American Women Suffrage Association.
Janet Scudder was more positive in her assessment of women's progress, arguing that women were as capable as men.
Janet Scudder believed that women artists were strong enough to handle the physical demands of the work.
Janet Scudder offered her home at Ville d'Avray to the French government, who used it as a hospital.
Janet Scudder served as a Red Cross volunteer while renting an apartment in Paris, but returned to New York City before end of the war.
Janet Scudder continued to produce garden statuary during the war years.
Janet Scudder was named a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1925 for her wartime service to France.
In 1913 Janet Scudder purchased a home at Ville d'Avray on the outskirts of Paris and for several years made it her primary residence.
Janet Scudder spent most of the last decade of her life in Paris, where she painted and continued to sculpt.
Janet Scudder died of pneumonia on June 9,1940, at the age of seventy, while vacationing in Rockport, Massachusetts.
Janet Scudder's art has been displayed at numerous national and international exhibitions from 1893 to 1937, as well as at public museums in the United States.
Janet Scudder exhibited her work at shows for the Architectural League of New York, the National Sculpture Society, the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, the Hoosier Salon, and at private galleries.