Description:
Madeline Yale Wynne (September 25, 1847 − January 4, 1918) was an American artist, teacher, writer, and philanthropist, who lived and worked in Chicago, IL and Deerfield, MA. Madeline was born in Newport, New York, the daughter of Linus Yale, Jr., and Katherine Brooks. In 1865, when she was 18, Madeline was married to Henry Winn. The couple had two sons—Philip Henry, born January 17, 1868, and Sydney Yale, born September 6, 1870—but the marriage came to an end in 1874. Following her divorce, she changed the spelling of her last name to Wynne. Having been schooled in the technical arts by her father, Madeline studied painting at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston during 1877−1878, at the Art Students League of New York in early 1880, and later in Europe. During the 1880s, while visiting Florence, she met fellow craftsman Annie Cabot Putnam. The two became lifelong partners, initially sharing a studio in Boston. After having been a resident of Shelburne Falls for most of her adult life, in 1885, Madeline began spending her summers with Annie at the village of Deerfield, Massachusetts. In 1895, she turned to writing; Madeline's supernatural short story "The Little Room" was published in Harper's Magazine and was well received. It was later released in a collection of Wynne's short stories called The Little Room and Other Stories, along with The Sequel to the Little Room.Madeline helped to found and lead the Deerfield Society of Arts and Crafts in 1901, which became an umbrella organization for the arts movement in the village. Annie Putnam and Madeline Wynne were expert metal smiths in their own right. This is an extremely fine and rare example of Madeline Yale Wynne’s work in patinated copper. The circular bowl is typical of Wynne’s rough and “unpretty” working method, with a natural-looking crimped rim. The patina is rich (green-gold on the exterior, auburn red on the interior), and the exterior rim has small circle punch decoration in a meandering organic circular and leaf-like design. On the base is a stamped monogram signature of conjoined initials "MYW" within an oval. Suzanne Flynt, former PVMA Curator, believes that this is the bowl described as small and of “a beautiful red color, suggesting the Japanese poppy,” exhibited at the Chicago Society of Arts and Crafts exhibition (April, 1899). It was reviewed by Mabel Keys in House Beautiful 6 (June 1899): 6.
Label Text:
Building a Collection, September 27, 2025-February 23, 2025: Madeline Yale Wynne was a leader in the American Arts and Crafts movement, working in both Deerfield, MA, and Chicago, IL. A talented author and artist, Wynne wrote several fictional works and also pursued painting, basket making, and furniture making throughout her later life. However, Wynne found her most creative artistic expression in metalwork, a field dominated by men. Wynne encouraged women to pursue the trade, arguing in 1903, “Any woman who can make a piecrust or knead a loaf of bread can work in metals. Metal is just like dough after it has been subjected to heat. Of course this heat feature staggers many women, but there is no reason why a woman shouldn’t do anything in the way of metal work without losing any of her dignity.” Wynne’s progressive ideas, creativity, and originality are evident in this poppy-shaped copper bowl with punch work design, the only extant example of her metalwork that bears her mark.
Tags:
women artists Subjects:
Women artists; Copper Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2022.26 |
