Items

Advanced search
  • Newspaper Article_1903

    Newspaper article in two sections. Title is 'Craftsmen's Work in Four Exhibits/ School of Industrial Art Has Largest Collection on View at the Handicrafters Have Smallest, But in Point of Excellence the Best - News of the Studio'. Article goes into several exhibitions around Philadelphia. Meta is mentioned at the very end: "...The few pieces of sculpture in the exhibition are quite noticeably above the average of work usually seen at schools. The exhibitors are Miss Meta Vaux Warrick and Mr. Salvador Belotti, both of whom are showing portrait busts. Miss Warrick exhibits also some of her small figure compositions, which express with much dramatic force certain abstract ideas."
  • Phil Call/Asbury Press_1903

    Newspaper article in two sections with pencil notation above 'Philadelphia Call.-/Thurs July 9 - 1903'. Title is 'Women Sculptors/ The famous Ones of America'. Article mentions several different women sculptors from around the country. Meta is mentioned at the end of the article: "Meta Vaux Warrick showed such genius when a child that her instructors became interested and urged very earnestly that she should be sent to Paris. It was her own strongest earthly desire. Her mother pinched and saved to pay the girl's expenses. She is only twenty-three years old now. In Paris she worked desperately. One day she took to the artist Rodin a small statue of her making which proved to be the making of her, for it gave the famous artist a 'thrill,' and no mistake. It represented a man eating his own heart. Her genius lies largely in the depiction of the weird and the terrible, of tragedy, suffering and despair. Perhaps the fact that Miss Warrick has colored blood in her veins may account for this."
  • Newspaper Article_1903

    Newspaper folded in half. Inside mentions several women artists, including Meta Warrick.
  • Philadelphia? Newspaper Article_1903

    Newspaper article with blue pencil 'C' in the upper left corner and evidence of a circle once around the article. Article is as follows: "Miss Meta Vaux Warrick is at her studio 338 South Quince Street, engaged in preparing some sketches for an exhibiton of her work, which will be held in the Fall at the School of Industrial Art under the auspices of the Alumni Association of the school. Miss Warrick is also engaged in coloring the frieze of arts and crafts for which she won the prize in 1899. This will also be placed on exhibition, with the rest of Miss Warrick's work."
  • Philadelphia Tribune Newspaper Article_1903

    Newspaper article with pencil notation beneath "News Tribune" Article is as follows: "Miss Meta Vaux Warrick has moved her studio from 1432 South Penn Square to 338 South Quince street. Miss Warrick has been at work all winter on a number of small sketches in clay, which hear out the promise of her early work. This young sculptor has a genuine gift for catching and perpetuating in plastic form a passing phase of a subject, a mood, an expression. her imagination and originality are extraordinary and a little more carefulness of technique will put her work seriously above much of the modeling done in this country today."
  • Detroit Michigan Newspaper Article_1903

    Newspaper article torn in half to fit onto the scrapbook page. Contains the title 'Arts and Crafts' overlaid on a tree with knotted roots. Beneath that is 'The Wretched/ Strange and Powerful Piece of Sculpture by a Philadelphia Mulatto Girl." On second piece is a headshot of Meta with text beneath 'Miss Meta Warrick, A Mulatto Who is Becoming Known as a Sculptor." Above the second piece of this article is written in pencil "Detroit Mich./ July 21-1903" Text is as follows: "Several American women are winning fame in the field of sculpture, and one of the most noted is the young Philadelphia mulatto girl, Miss Meta Vaux Warrick, whose work is creating much comment on both sides of the sea. Miss Warrick is the sculptor whose masterly expression of strange and original thought led the celebrated Rodin to give her special attention during the three years she spent studying in Paris. This young girl has known all the hardships and struggles of lonely student life in the great French City, and while also struggled wrought her emotions into her work, which is expressive of the despair which often overtook her. However success was near. When she was (this paragraph is crossed out with a blue pencil) scarely 19 years of age she took one of her models to Rodin. He recognized the genius in her handiwork, and from that time on she was his protege. One of the finest pieces of her work, 'The Wretched', a copy of which is shown on this page, so attacted the attention of M. Bing, the great French Sculptor, that he had it cast in bronze. Art-loving Paris was amazed at this example of the young girl's work, of whihc it has been said that 'the original conception, the movement of palpitating life, the masterly grouping, would be remarkable for a mature man.' Miss Warrick has a great field open to her, and every promise of being able to fill it ot the satifsaction of her fellow artists. She is Philadelphian born and bred, and at the School of Industrial Art she received the education and encouragement necessary to send her to Paris to study, and, after her return home, the first public recognition of the art world, for she is now on the school board of control."
  • Philadelphia Inquirer_1903

    Newspaper article with a large painting of Meta, leaning back on a couch with a hat in her lap. Under the image is the title "A Young Philadelphia Sculptor". In pencil next to this article is "Inquirer Sunday, May 10." A small attached article is as follows: "Miss Meta Vaux Warrick has moved her studio from 1432 South Penn Square to 338 South Quince Street. Miss Warrick has been at work all winter of a number of small sketches in clay, which bear out the promise of her early work. This young sculptor has a genuine gift from catching and perpetuating in plastic form a passing phase of a subject, a mood, an expression. Her imagination and origniality are extraordinary and a little more carefulness of technique will put her work seriously above much of the modelling done in this country to-day."
  • Newspaper article_1902

    Small newspaper article with handwritten. In two parts with title cut out above small article. Article is as follows: "Negress Sculptor Wins Honors in Paris/ Meta Vaux Warrick, the talented young negress sculptor of Philadelphia, has received word from Paris that five of her small statues have been accepted for this year's Salon. Of these titles of three are "Mauvais Larron," (Bad Thief) "L'Homme qui a Faires" (The Dead Man?) and "Les Miserables." (The Wretched)
  • Le Signal_1903

    Small newspaper article in French with handwritten note above 'Signal' and beneath 'Myra, 23 April' In French: "...les Malheureux, groupe en bronze de Mlle Méta Warrich [sic], une des plus belles choses que j'aie vues en ce genre depuis longtemps ; c'est d'une sauvage poésie, d'une intensité de misère et de faim qui vous font passer un frisson au coeur." In English: "...the Wretched, Miss Meta Warrick's bronze group, one of the most beautiful things I have seen like this in a long time; it is of a savage poetry, of an intensity of miscarriage and of hunger which see make pass a shiver in the heart."
  • Le Figaro_1903

    Small newspaper article in French with handwritten note above 'The Figaro' Blue lines are down each side, drawn in after printing. In French: duc, Dampt (tres joli buste d'enfant). Puis les figurines dramatiques et mouvementees de M. Nocquet, artiste de beaucoup d'avenir; les envois divers de Mmes Meta-Warrick, Lafaurie; de MM. Hugo Kaufmann, Sorensen-Ringi, Mulot, Gosen, Giessendorff, Voulot, Froment-Meurice, Saint-Lerche, Leonard, etc," In English: duke, Dampt (very pretty bust of a child). Then the dramatic and eventful figurines of M. Nocquet, artist of many, of the future; various contributions from Mmes Meta-Warrick, Lafaurie; by MM. Hugo Kaufmann, Sorensen-Ringi, Mulot, Gosen, Giessendorff, Voulot, Froment-Meurice, Saint-Lerche, Leonard, etc,"
  • North American_1902

    Long newspaper article with a separate headder "Philadelphia Woman is a Successful Playwright and Another a Maker of Weird Statuary" with pencil notation "The North American Sunday". The article about Meta is longwise and contains two pixel images of 'Secret Suffering (Sorrow) and "The Wretched". The article has another headder "Philadelphia Mulato Girl's Statuary Weird as Rodin's" The article is as follows: "There are women who model in clay and women who carve in marble. They sometimes produce things of beauty having lines of charm and delicacy, but in these examples of feminine art one misses that touch of power which characterizes the work of men. Let the things they do be cast in the most lasting bronze, they will yet look as soft as wax. One woman there is, indeed, who may claim exception from this mild indictment. She is Meta Vaux Warrick, sculptor - one hesitates to use the term sculptress. Climb four flights of stairs in the quaint old-fashioned building, 1432 South Penn Square, rap on the door that bears her card, and it will be opened by a young mulatto woman of remarkably prepossessing appearance. She is the sculptor whose masterly epression of strange and original thought led Rodin - the celebrated, uniquel Rodin - to give her his special attention and a great deal of his valuable time during the three years of study she spent in Paris. Meta Warrick was born 23 years ago in South Twelfth street, Philadelphia, of hardworking, ambitious parents. Her mother is a hairdresser, her father was a barber. She does not know of anyone related to her who has taste or talent for art. When she went to the public schools, modeling clay was put into her hands and she found her element. Those people who in the educational movement stand up for the aesthetic principle, hoping to discover artistic talent in teh children of the people, must congratulate themseles on this young woman. It was worth while putting modeling tools into many inept fingers to discover a gift like hers. She won a scholarship in the School of Industrial Art and there carried off first prize for modeling. She is to-day on its board of control. Urgued by her instructors and aided by her self-sacrificing mother, she sailed for Paris to study the art to which she was born. There she drew under Collin, modeled the antique under Carles and had as instructors Ingalbert and Rollard. She studied the art galleries and throught long and hard, finding herself a stranger in a strange land in more ways than one. After six months of this she abandoned the paths of conventional study, took a studio and worked by herself, depending on an artist friend for criticism. Thus she labored, alone but not lonesome, so eager and earnest that she frequently forgot to eat the food she had purchased with her scanty allowance. Despair came to her after - the black despair of the artist possessed by talent too great to be set aside or destroyed. When she was scarcely nineteen she took to Rodin a small clay which caused him, who had seen and known so much, to gasp at its power and daring. It was the study of a man eating his heart. In some strange, obscure way which one shrinks at analyzing, she has drawn the heart from the breast of an agonized man and put it into his convulsed hands where he gnaws it. It symbolizes unceasing sorrow profoundly secret and silent. Under the great master she produced rapidly. After her study with Rodin, M. Bing, of the celebrated galleries of L'Art Nouveau, threw open his salon for an exhibition of her works, of which he sold a number. The well-known art critic, Edouard Gerard, wrote a glowing preface to the catalogue and stirred Paris with interest. M. Bing had "The Wretched" cast in bronze, and when the critics saw it they called it genius. It is the expression of wretchedness in all its phases: in resignation, in despair, in torpor, in rebellion, and in defiance. The original conception, the movement of palpitating life, the mature man. As it is the work of a young girl one ponders deeply for an explaination. The answer is found, perhaps, in the artist's mixed race. The white blood in Miss Warrick's veins cannot say "It is mine," for African speaks here. In the "Man Gnawing his Heart" her Ethiopian descent expressess itself, and in all her other works there is the voice of that people. In her graceful "Spirit Dancing" with its roughly modeled face, there is a visible and mad abandon of the Voodoo. "The Impenitent Thief," starting in its unsparing truth, shows the crucified man cursing God as he dies in the determined defiance of bondage. The most nearly feminine thing that this young woman has yet done is a little fancy six inch high called "Dispair." The face is hidden, but the writhing limbs closely interlaced tell its thought. Turn it any way you choose, glance at but a part of it, and still you perceive clearly that it is the despairing remorse of a woman's heart. In all her work there is the sadness of serpent-infested swamps, the mysteris of miasmatic forests, the sombre glow of evening skies relfected in lonely payous. Yet Miss Warrick has not a morbid personality. Canaries sing in her little studio and she has a feminine fondness for pretty clothes. The fingers that modeled the "Impenitent Thief" can trim a hat with Parisian 'smartness.'
  • New York Herald_1902

    Small magazine article on white paper. Written in French. Appears to have originally been printed in a Paris publication, then reprinted in the New York Herald. First paper in English is "The New York Herald," The article below in French: "Exposition./ Mlle. Meta Warrick, une jeune artiste americaine, qui expose en ce moment quel-ques-unes de ses oeuvres aux galeries de l'Art Nouveau, chez Bing, rue de Povence, semble etre hantee par une esthetique mouvementee tres moderne, dont la formule est evidemment due a cette ecole, dont le chef inconteste est le grand sculpteur Rodin Dans une vingtaine de petits platres, Mlle. Warrick aborde le mouvement humain sous ses formes les plus diverse avec une surete de main qui est presque d'un maitre, mais si la vie et la force humaines y sont completement representees, je dois constater a regret qui l'agreable beaute physique meme en son expression la plus simple en est absente. Il semble que l'artiste ait traduit toute son oeuvre en un groupe initule "Les Malheureux," qui indique chez son auteur une puissance et une originalite de premier ordre. Dans une oeuvre plus haute, "Le Mauvais Larron," l'article a aborde avec audace un grand morceau, dont l'execution est remarquable, mais ici encore leel a outrepasse, il me semble, les limites de la laideur humaine dans l'expression si violente qu'elle a donnee a son modele. Paris, Dimanche 10 Aout, 1902" In English: "Exhibition./ Miss. Meta Warrick, a young American artist, who is currently exhibiting some of her works at the Art Nouveau galleries, at Bing, rue de Povence, seems to be haunted by a very modern aesthetic. , whose formula is obviously due to this school, whose undisputed leader is the great sculptor Rodin. In about twenty small plasters, Miss. Warrick approaches human movement in its most diverse forms with a surety of hand which is almost of a master, but if human life and strength are fully represented there, I must note by regret that the pleasant physical beauty even in its simplest expression is absent. It seems that the artist has translated all his work into a group called "Les Malheureux," which indicates in its author a power and originality of the first order. In a higher work, "Le Mauvais Larron," the artist daringly tackled a great piece, the execution of which is remarkable, but here again feel has overstepped, it seems to me, the limits of human ugliness in the art. She gave to her models expression so violent. Paris, Sunday August 10, 1902"
  • Newspaper Article_1902

    Small newspaper article, undated. There is a pencil notation next to it '2500 F', a correction to the article. Article is two pieces glued together. Article is as follows: "Miss Meta Warrick has received a commission for a portrait bust of the late William Still. Recently Miss Warrick received a letter from M. S. Bing of the L'Art Nouveau, Paris, to whom she sold a group called "The Wretched" after her exhibition there last June, who writes that it has been cast in bronze and it is admirably done, and has been sold for 1500 francs. Mr. Bing also wrote Miss Warrick some suggestions in regard to sending work to him, as the people who have seen the few pieces she left at the L'Art Nouveau are anxious to see more of her work. Miss Warrick has a very interesting studio at 1432 South Penn Square."
  • Philadelphia Inquirer_1903

    Long newspaper article with handwritten above in pencil 'Sunday Inquirer/ Dec 19-1902(or 3). Article is as follows: "Miss Meta Warrick has taken a studio 1432 South Penn Square. She has just returned from three years' study in Paris where she worked alone in her own studio. Rodin criticised her work and no one can look at the pieces she has brought back without feeling how much she has been influenced by her great master. Perhaps the best is a fine head of John the Baptist, a type of vigorous and exalted youth. A portrait study of a young girl is very pleasant. But the main interest of her work is comprised in ten or twelve small casts - groups and signle figures. These are truely Rodinesque through their intensity of thought expression. And what thoughts! One could more readily understand them in a strong man, but hardly in a young and happy girl. All violent or fantastic, they are too sugestive of a Maupassant, they show a morbidness, a lack of altruism from which one shrinks. Her "Oedipus" is an image of anquish, he has torn his eyes from their bleeding sockets and kneels, his face upturned as if with a terrible effort at sight. In another, "Death," a grizly horror leans on his staff and laughts while the wind blows his long cloak. "The Cloud" shows a fantastic group of figures. Those beneath are bent with sorrow and pain, they wring their arms and allow their streaming hair to hide the light of day, those above clasp their hands meekly or look upward with joyous countenances. They see the bright uses of the heavens whatever sorrow is under their feet. Her "Primitive Woman" is a cat-like creature, terribly near the brute, who crawls along with a strange questioning face. Rather more pleasant is one called "The Flame," an upward curling tounge of fire, which is all compact of sinuous creatures, some beautiful, some repulsive, what any dreamer might see in the fierce element. All her work has a value. Its very abandon makes it effective; with a more mature judgement and a stronger technique it would be powerful. All that she needs is technique to be the master of brute facts and make bone and muscle spring into life under her hands. That one acquired, it only means study, she might be anything she wished. The blood of the long enslaved negro runs in her veins and inspires her with weird conceptions and strange Heina-like contrasts. All the feelings of her race, the 'hants' and 'spirits' of the South, the bitter philosophy of the North may find spledid expression in her."
  • Philadelphia Sunday Press_1902

    Large, folded article about Meta Warrick and her sculptures from the Philadelphia Sunday Press October 19, 1902. It is quite an impressive spread, with lots of text and images of her works. Images include one of her seated facing right and three works: 'John the Baptist', The Thief on the Cross', and one of her workong on a standing nude. Headline is as follows "The only Sculptress of her Race. Meta Vaux Warrick a Philadelphia colored girl wins fame and honor in the art schools of France. Foreign masters and critics declare that her works reveals a master of the Sculptor's Art that promises Great Results in the Future. she is a product of the Art Schools of This City." Full typed article will be found on the server. The article notes her amazing drawing tallents that won her a scholarship and goes into detail on her time in Paris, and about her setting up a studio in Philadelphia.
  • Newspaper_1900

    Small newspaper add from an unknown newspaper. States "Only Sculptress of her race, Meta Warrick, a Philadelphia colored girl, wins fame and honor in the studios of France. Foreign critics declare that her work reveals a master skill."
  • New York --ter Newspaper Article_1900

    Newspaper article with a photograph of a sculpture bust with the wrighting beneath "'Bust' - Miss Meta Vaux Warrick". Beside the article written in pencil is "New York __ter" Newspaper article is as follows: "Among Philadelphia artists of note at the exhibition is Miss Blanche Dillaye, who exhibits an attractive moonlight - a row of old houses with a lamplit window or two reflected in quiet water - and a twilight, entitled 'Nuit d'Ete.' The latter is the charming view of a vast field with gently sloping hills beyond a wooded hollow. Ther far horizon is defined against a luminous sky where fleecy clouds reflect the last rays of the sun. The sense of distance and the tranquillity of evening are very finely interpreted. Another Philadelphian, whose name is not yet so well known, is Miss Mary Smyth Perkins, a former student at the School of Design in Philadelphlia, and at present a pupil in Mr. Parker's studio. Miss Perkins exhibits three very creditable little views of the Luxembourg ; nice in tone and composition. Other Philadephians include: Mrs. Inez Addams, an apprentice of Whistler's; Mrs. E. Plaisted Abbott, whose plaster advertising the present exhibition is not the least attractive thing t obe seen there ; Miss Edith Bristol S. Stone, whose portrait of Miss K., whose Holland scene and those still-life all display a wide range of talent, and Miss Veta Vaux Warrick, who has the distinction of being the only sculptor represented."
  • Femina_1902

    Newspaper or magazine article in French titled 'Femina' dated March 1, 1902. On white paper with curved text to the upper left as if once around an oval image. In French: "Beaucoup moins nombreuses sont les femmes sculpteures: ici, vingt-deux exposantes en tout. Mais ce ne sont pas les moins vaillantes et l'effort d'art, pour être plus rare, n'en est pas moins grand. L'Endymion de Mme la duchesse d'Uzès n'est qu'une esquisse, mais le groupe atteste une belle inspiration. L'oeuvre de Mme Coutan-Montorgueil est toute de délicatesse et de charme: c'est de la sculpture très féminine - et par cela même - intéressante. Je ne ferai pas le même compliment à Mlle Warrick; il n'y a rien de féminine dans son oeuvre; ses satyres, son Bûcheron et la mort, son groupe des malheureux, voilà assurément un art dont on ne peut dire qu'il est plaisant; il y a là une fougue, une aprêté, une imagination exubérante et violente, qui étonnent, qui choquent peut-être, et dont l'intérêt est intense. Mais comme on voudrait que ce soit un homme et non une femme qui ait signé une aussi belle hallucination! Citons encore Mme Malvina Brach, qui sait bien son métier, Mme de Frumerie, très vivante et très intéressante, Mme Berthe Girardet, pittoresque, avec son Départ de l'Islandais, Mmes Gruyer-Caillaux et Maginot. Et avant de quitter le Salon des Femmes peintres, n'oublions pas les bijoux de Mlle Jeane de Montigny, qui n'est pas une inconnne pour les lectrices de Femina, les cuirs repoussés de Mlle Marguerite Roy, de Mme Matyld Mourier, de Mlle Combette, etc. " SMILIS In English: "Much fewer are the women sculptors: here, there are two exhibitors in all. But they are not the least valiant and the artistic effort, to be rarer, is no less great. The Endymion of Mme la Duchesse d'Uzes is only a sketch, but the group attests to a beautiful inspiration. Mme Coutan-Montorgueil's work is full of delicacy and charm: it is very feminine sculpture - and by that very fact - interesting. I will not give the same compliment to Miss Warrick: there is nothing feminine in her work: her satyrs, her Lumberjack and death, her group of the unfortunate, here is certainly an art which one cannot say that it is. pleasant: there is an ardor, a sharpness, an exuberant and violent imagination, which astonishes, which perhaps shock, and of which the interest is intense. But how we would like it to be a man and not a woman who has signed one: so beautiful a hallucination! We can also cite Mme Malvina Brach, who knows her profession well, Mme de Frumerie, very lively and very interesting, Mme Berthe Girardet, picturesque, with her Depart de l'Islande, Mme Gruyer-Caillaux and Mme Maginot. And before leaving the Salon des Femmes Peintres, let's not forget the jewels of Miss Jeane de Montigny, who is no stranger to Femina readers, the repousse leathers of Mlle Marguerite Roy, of Mme Matyid Mourier, of Mlle. Combette, etc."
  • La Fronde_1902

    Elle a vingt ans à peine; et il y a déjà plus que promesses dans ouvrages. Même ils étonnent par les plus rare qualités. Mlle Meta Warrick sait réfléchir, sait vouloir. Elle ne traduit pas n'importe quel aspect des choses, --mais, parmi les aspects les plus caractéristiques, choisit le plus caractéristique. Cette recherche exige une extrême acuité d'observation, et, dans l'esprit, la faculté tout intellectuelle de saisir en chaque objet les principes qui formeront synthèse. Il faut aussi de la hardiesse, oser s'exprimer librement, et ne pas faire de concessions aux mannieres convenues de voir et de sentir. Sur la jeune artiste ne pêse aucun dogme d'Ecole. Elle médite, elle rêve, elle travaille sans que la tyrannie des formules l'intimide. De plus, on doit estimer les statues, statuettes, groupes exposé ici pour l'équilibre, les heureuses combinaisons de lignes, le mouvement. Le movement surtout, la vie nervouse, inquiète, tourmentée, L'imgination de Mlle Warrick est, en effet, tournée vers les effrois, les fievers, les souffrances. Elle a dédié aux Malheureux un groupe des plus dramatiques, d'une belle vigueur de conception, d'une ordonnance plastique tout à fait louable. De la même compassion sans mièvrerie est né l'Homme qui a faim, le misérable qui n'a plus que son coeur à manger, et qui le ronge avec les grimaces, les contorsions du désespoir. Désespoir sans grossièreté, sans prosaïsme même, qui est realisée sculpturalement--la peine affreuse déscrite, se figure-t-on, par quelque conte, quelque ballade, quelque légende... Même impression est donnée par le Mauvais larron, morceau considérable, qu'il faut espérer voir l'an prochain au Grand Palais. Et je veux citer encore des figurines comme l'homme qui rit, l'Homme à l'épine, Falstaff, la Mort dans le vent, si bizarrement souples, des groupes mouvants, turbulents, énergiques comme les Lutteurs, Feux follets, les Satyres. Mlle Warrick est une Américaine de Philadelphie. Elle travaille là-bas selon le système d'un professeur allemand, -- système propice au développement de l'imagination, de la volonté, de la franchise dans l'expression. Trente, quarante, cinquante equisses différentes étaient demandées sur le même sujet à la toute jeune élève. C'était l'habituer à ne pas s'en remettre aux premieres impulusion de son instinct d'artiste, à les raisonner, à s'interroger profondément; c'était rendre sa vision pénétrante. Depuis trois ans qu'elle est en France Mlle Warrick a continué, dans la discipline du travail, à prendre posession d'elle-même. La Fronde 26 Juin" In English: "Sculpture / Miss Meta Warrick / She is barely twenty; and there is already more than promises in his works. Even they amaze with the rarest qualities. Miss Meta Warrick knows how to think, knows how to want. It does not translate just any aspect of things - but, among the most characteristic aspects, chooses the most characteristic. This research requires an extreme acuity of observation, and, in the mind, the entirely intellectual faculty of grasping in each object the principles which will form a synthesis. It is also necessary to be bold, to dare to express oneself freely, and not to make concessions to the agreed manners of seeing and of knowing. No school dogma weighs on the young artist. She meditates, she dreams, she works without the tyranny of formulas intimidating her. In addition, we must estimate the statues, statuettes, groups exhibited here for the balance, the happy combinations of lines, the movement. Above all, movement, nervous, restless, tormented life. Ms. Warrick's imagination is, in fact, turned towards fear, fever, suffering. She dedicated to the Unhappy a group of the most dramatic, of a beautiful vigor of conception, of a quite laudable plastic order. From the same compassion without meekness is born the Man who is lazy (Lazy Bones), the miserable one who has only his heart to manage, and who gnaws at it with grimaces, the contortions of despair. Despair, without rudeness, without even prosaism, which is carried out sculpturally - the awful pain described, one imagines, by some tale, some ballad, some legend ... The same impression is given by the Bad Thief (Theif on the Cross), piece considerable, which we can hope to see next year at the Grand Palais. And I still want to cite figurines like the Laughing Man, the Thorny Man, Falstaff, Death in the Wind, so strangely supple, moving, turbulent, energetic groups like Wrestlers, Wisps, Satyrs. Miss Warrick is an American from Philadelphia. She works there according to the system of a German professor, - a system conducive to the development of imagination, will, frankness in expression. Thirty, forty, fifty different exquises were requested on the same subject from the very young pupil. It was to get him used to not relying on the first impulses of his artistic instinct, to reason with them, to question himself deeply; it was to make his vision penetrating. For three years that she has been in France Miss Warrick has continued, in the field of work, to take possession of herself. The Fronde June 26 "
  • Philadelphia Inquirer_1902

    Newspaper article from 'The Philadelphia Inquirer's Summer Magazine' with written in pencil next to it 'Sum Aug 24, 1902'. The article is as follows: "A young Philadelphia art student, a mulatto, Miss Meta Warrick, has been creating something of a sensation in Paris, by an exhibition of small plaster figures displayed some weeks ago at L'Art Nouveau galleries. Miss Warrick was for several seasons a student at the School of Industrial Art in this city. There she showed an aptitude for modeling wiht a decorative tendencey. Two years ago she went to Paris to study, and since then she has developed rapidly. Though quite young - barely twenty - she has a decided talent and works with much force and originality. She is a follower of the great Rodin, and, therefore, an impressionist in clay. French critics are inclined to predict a brilliant future for her.
  • The Daily Eagle_August 10 1902

    Newspaper article from The __ Daily Eagle of New York dated Sunday August 10, 1902. Contains a long article about Meta as well as a drawing of her, full bodied, leaning back on a couch wearing a stripped dress and holding a hat. The article is as follows: "Miss Meta Warrick/ An American Colored Woman Who Gives Promise as a Sculptor./ Those of you who are interested in American art, must remember the name of Meta Warrick. Meta Warrick is a colored American girl, and a sculptor. She came here two years ago. She had hardly enough money to travel and keep herself in half-starved way, for a year, then her mother managed to keep her another year. What she has accomplished is marvelous; marvelous because she found a way to accomplish it, and marvelous her art will be. I have very little faith in a woman sculptor. They will succeed in making a bust of a pretty woman or a statuette, which, even in marble, will look as soft as putty. But Miss Warrick cannot be classed in that category of woman sculptors. When she went to Rodin with a piece of her work, he said: 'But, mademoiselle, you are a sculptor. Your work is powerful.' I think Miss Warrick, will prove, if she works long enough, to have not only talent, but genius. There is already the sign of it in the works she exhibited at Bings. To critics and amateurs they were a revolution. Now, people who are fond of sweet little sculptured angels, academical art in general, will at once class Miss Warrick's work as vulgar, gross, painful and pay no more attention to it. Every piece of her sculpture, in fact, tells a tale of woe of sorrow, of fear, or of intense love or joy. For instance, her almost life-sized thief on the cross is almost frightful to behold. It is the realistic face of the thief in the throes of death, with protruding lips, that become blanched with blasphemies as well as death. Every line of the body shows anatomical study and that the girl did not hesitate to produce the lines as her vision of the thief revealed them to her. In her studio she has a small plaster relief which was inspired by the lines: be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds the sun is shining' The relief is a cloud peopled with the suffering, the sorrowful and the desparing, then around the edge, those who can see the light behind the cloud take courage, and the smile of hope on their faces is intense. Think of the powerful imagination of that woman. Her grandfather, while she sat on his lap, as a little child, fed her mind with ghost stories; she saw much suffering around her: she afterward learned Edgar Alan Poe's weird tales by hear. All this she materailzed in plaster and some of her works, I must repeat, are marvelous. She herself is not at all morbid in disposition. She talks well, has a certain education. She is so much wrapped in her work that she said to me, 'I might stay well with my mother in Philadelphia and be well clothed, have a good table, and a better roof than the rickety one of a studio over my head, but no privation can keep me from my work'"
  • Le Petit Bleu de Paris_1902

    Newspaper article in French on blue paper. Cut into three different sections. In French: "Le Petit Bleu De Paris - /Dimamche 22 Juin 1902/ L'exposition de sculptures de Mlle Meta Warrick a L'art Nouveau Bing/ Mlle Meta Warrick est une artiste americaine. Elle releveralt de Rodin et de Rosso par le mouvement qu'elle cherche a donner a sa sculpture. Cette sculpture est plus que vigoureusc, elle est violente. Les danseuses de Mlle Warrick ont des dehanchements excessifs et des faces presque masculines. Quand Mlle Warrick est ealme et modele tranquillement un buste, ce buste a de la vie et de l'interet. C;est un talent a qui un brin d'assagissemeat ne miessierait pas." In English: "Le Petit Bleu De Paris - / Sunday June 22, 1902 / Miss Meta Warrick's sculpture exhibition at L'art Nouveau Bing / Miss Meta Warrick is an American artist. She is similar to Rodin and Rosso through the movement that she seeks to give to her sculpture. This sculpture is more than vigorous, it is violent. Miss Warrick's 'dancers' have excessive swaying and almost masculine faces. When Miss Warrick is quietly modeling a bust, that bust has life and interest. It is a talent that a bit of sobering up(?) would not try.
  • Philadelphia Sunday Press_July 20, 1902

    Newspaper article with a reprinted drawing image of Meta. The image is her from the side, but facing slightly backwards to the left. She has a flat hat and a bow in her hair, which is tied into a bun at her neckline. Underneath the image is printed 'Miss Meta Warrick/ A young Philadelphia sculptor.' Above this article in pen is written 'Sunday Press July 20 - 1902' The article, cut out seperately, but pasted overlapping the drawing is as follows: 'Miss Meta Warrick, whose portrait from an etching by Duvre appears above, returns to this city from a stay of several years in Paris toward the end of this month. After a visit to Atlandic City, Miss Warrick will open a studio in this city. She had already made her mark among the youngest art students of the city before she left it. A most promising sketch by her, made in 1898, while a student at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, is still on exhibition at the school as worthy permanent attention. In Paris Miss Warrick has studied at the Julian Academy and elsewhere. She has twice had a special exhibition of her work, the last of some twenty-two members, exhibited in June at "L'Art Nouveau, Bing." on the Rue de Provence. "In her work," writes the critic, Mr. Edouard Gerard, "there is much promise because there is in them the most precious qualities that one can find in a young artist - sense of form, originality of view, an easy daring and force of expression." Miss Warrick has sought, as he points out, in her work movement, vigor and a sense of extreme action. "Mlle. Warrick," says Mr. Gerard, "does not feel with the French poet. I hate the movement which displaced the line and believed instead that the line is the chief gift movement has to creat. In her art she constantly seeks it. Nothing seems alien to this young genious which conceives and executes with a singular force."
  • Exhibition Poster

    Very thin paper poster printed in French. In French: "Galeries de L'Art Nouveau Bing/Exposition de Sculptures/ Mlle META WARRICK/ a partir du 18 Juin 1902/ Tous le Jars de 10 h. a 6 heurs, Dimanches exceptes" In English: "Bing Moves Art Galleries / Exhibition of Sculptures / Miss META WARRICK / from June 18, 1902 / Every day at 10 a.m. at 6 a.m., except Sundays"
  • Boston Sunday Journal_August 17, 1902

    Newspaper article from the Boston Sunday Journal dated August 17, 1902. "American Colored Girl Startles Paris By Her Art. Paris, Aug. 16 - Americans in Paris are much interested in the work of Meta Warrick, a colored American girl, and a sculptor. She had hardly enough money to travel and keep herself in a half-starved way, for a year, then her mother managed to keep her antoher year. What she has accomplished is marvelous: marvelous because she found a way to accomplish it, and marvelous her art will be. When she went to Rodin with a piece of her work, he said 'But madamoiselle, you are a sculptor, your work is powerful. Miss Warrick will prove, if she works long enough, to have not only talent, but genious. There is already signs of it in the work she exhibited at Bings. To critics and amateurs they were a revelation. Every piece of her sculpture, in fact, tells a tale of woe, of sorrow, of fear, or of intense love or joy. For instance, her almost life-sized Theif on the Cross is almost freightful to behold. It is the realistic face of the theif in the throes of death, with protruding lips, that becomes blanched with blasphemies as well as death. Every line of the body shows anatomical study and that the girl did not hesitate to produce the lines as her vision of the theif revealed them ot her. In her studio she has a small plaster relief which was inspired by these lines: Be still, sad heart, and cease repining; Behind the clouds the sun is shining The releif is a cloud peopled, with the suffering, the sorrowful and the desparing, then around the edge those who can see the light behind the cloud take courage, and the smile of hope on their faces is intense. Her grandfather, while she sat on his lap as a little child fed her mind with ghost stories; she saw much suffering around her; she afterward neared Edgar Allan Poe's weird tales by heart. All this she materializes in plaster and some of her works are marvelous. She herself is not at all morbid in disposition. She talks well, has a certain education. She is so much wrapped in her work that she said: "I might stay with my mother in Philadelphia and be well clothed, have a good table and a better roof than the rickety one of a studio over my head; but no privation can keep me from my work."