Mrs. Lee mentions Mrs. Wilson of Cincinnati as having displayed much original talent in sculpture. The following account is from a friend’s letter:
“She is the wife of a physician of Cincinnati, and was born, I believe, in or near Cooperstown, New York. Her first impressions of persons and things are expressed in her conversation. She is a perfect child of nature, impulsive, but wonderfully perceptive, and with so much freshness that all persons of mind are attracted to her. Her infancy and youth were very much shadowed by domestic sufferings, originating, at first, in the loss of a large property by her father, who in consequence removed to the West. He died when she was quite young. She married Dr. Wilson, a most excellent person, of Quaker family. All circumstances were such, that an early revelation or development was not made of her artistic powers. In visiting a sculptor’s studio the desire first awoke; an intelligent friend encouraged and sympathized with her, and Mrs. Wilson procured the materials. Her feeling was so intense that it could not be repressed. Her husband was her first subject. She worked with so much energy that sometimes she would faint away, and on one of these occasions he said, ‘If you are not more moderate, I will throw that thing out of the window.’ But it was finished, proving a perfect likeness, and she chiseled it in stone. It is in her parlor at Cincinnati, a most beautiful bust, and an admirable likeness, and seems like a miracle, considering it was her first attempt.
“Another marvelous work is the figure of her son. He threw himself on the floor one morning in an attitude at once striking and picturesque. To copy it required a perfectly correct eye, or a knowledge of anatomy. She courageously attempted it; the attitude was repeated, and her success was triumphant. It is only a cast, and the cast does not do justice to the finish of her work, but she has not been able to procure a block of marble for the copy. The effect is wonderful for its spirit and the accuracy of its anatomy. She has commenced other subjects, but some of them are not finished, and to others accidents have happened.
“She has a family of children, and is a devoted mother. We think stone will have but little chance with those beings of flesh and blood whose minds and hearts she is carefully modeling. Perhaps family cares may be the true secret why female sculptors are so rare; but we congratulate this lady that she has the true perception of the beautiful, and feel quite sure it will mitigate the suffering from delicate health, and scatter fragrant flowers and healing herbs in the sometimes rugged paths of duty.”
A gentleman acquainted with Mrs. Wilson mentioned an incident that occurred on a journey to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. Struck with the aspect of a distinguished person in the company—Mr. Emerson—the sculptress gave directions to stop near a bank of soft red clay, and, putting out one hand to grasp a sufficient portion of the material, with the other she signed to her subject to remain motionless. In a few moments she had modeled a very creditable likeness of the author.
MRS. DUBOIS.
Mrs. Cornelius Dubois, now residing in New York, and devoted to the charitable institution of the Nursery and Child’s Hospital, has shown much talent for sculpture and cameo-cutting. Mrs. Lee describes her as having discovered, accidentally, about 1842, a taste for modeling, in the following manner: “Her father had his bust taken. Before the casting, he asked his daughter her opinion of it as a likeness. She pointed out some defects which the artist corrected in her presence, upon which she exclaimed, ‘I could do that!’ and requested the sculptor to give her some clay, from which she modeled, with but little labor, a bust of her husband, and was eminently successful in the likeness. She then decided to take lessons, but illness having interfered with her plans, she abandoned the intention, and worked on by herself, with merely the instruction from the sculptor to keep her clay moist until her work was completed.
“When she recovered her health sufficiently, she continued to mould, and, among other works, produced the likenesses of two of her little children, the group of Cupid and Psyche, a copy; and a novice, an original piece. She also carved a head of the Madonna in marble; a laborious and exciting work, which injured her health to such a degree that her physician interdicted her devotion to the arts.
“She then went to Italy, where she desired the first artist in cameos to give her lessons. When he saw some that she had cut, he told her that he could teach her nothing; she had only to study the antiques.
“Her works in cameos are ‘St. Agnes and her Lamb,’ ‘Alcibiades,’ ‘Guido’s Angel,’ ‘Raphael’s Hope,’ and the ‘Apollo.’ She took over thirty likenesses in cameo, requiring only an hour’s sitting, after which they were completed.