Janet de Coux
Janet de Coux (or De Coux[1]) (October 5, 1904 – 2000) American sculptor born in Niles, Michigan to Bertha Wright de Coux and the Reverend Charles John de Coux. She is best remembered for her ecclesiastical reliefs and statues.
Early years
When she was 8 years old her family moved near Pittsburgh. While still in high school De Coux began attending the Carnegie Institute of Technology where she studied with Joseph Bailey Ellis. Deciding that the program there was not geared enough to the fine arts she moved to the The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and then she attended the school of the Art Institute of Chicago. Whitney Warren wrote her a letter of introduction to C. Paul Jennewein, for whom she worked as an assistant. This followed by stints working for Aristide Cianfarani in Providence, where she attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and with Alvin Meyer in Chicago.[2] Later she served as an assistant to James Earle Fraser after she had helped enlarge his statue of equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt.[3]
During the Great Depression US President Franklin Deleno Roosevelt initiated the New Deal. One of its programs was the Federal Art Projects under which the federal government hired artists, mostly painters and sculptors to create art for a variety of public places, often post offices. De Coux carved a relief, "Vacation Time" for the post office in Girard, Pennsylvania. in 1984 the piece was listed as “in storage.”[4]
Later career
German critic Anton Henze selected de Coux’s “St. Benedict” as one of the United States’ notable, recent (1956) contributions to Roman Catholic art in his work ‘’Contemporary Church Art.[5]
Work
Her work can be found at the following locations:[6]
- Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
- National Academy of Design, New York, New York
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, District of Columbia
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
- University of Notre Dame, Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana
- Harvard University, Harvard Art Museum, Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Sewickley, Pennsylvania
- Sacred Heart Elementary School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
References
- ↑ McGlauflin, Alice Coe, ed., Who’s Who in American Art 1938-1939 vol.2, The American Federation of Arts, Washington D.C., 1937 p.141
- ↑ Rubenstein, Charlotte Streifer, American Women Sculptors, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston 1990 p. 282-282
- ↑ Evert, Marilyn, Discovering Pittsburgh’s Sculpture, photographs by Vernon Gay,University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh,1983 p401
- ↑ Park, Marlene and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia 1984 p.226
- ↑ Henze, Anton and Theodor Filthaut, Contemporary Church Art, translated by Cecily Hastings, edited by Mauricce Lavanoux, Sheed & Ward, New York, p. 114
- ↑ http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=G4F2769U09813.5914&profile=ariall&uri=link=3100006~!207725~!3100001~!3100002&aspect=Browse&menu=search&ri=2&source=~!siartinventories&term=de+Coux%2C+Janet%2C+1904-1999%2C+sculptor.&index=AUTHOR