Annie Virginia Latham Bartlett (December 6, 1865 – April 21, 1948) was an American sculptor from West Virginia whose works were exhibited at the New York World's Fair in 1939.[1]

Annie Latham Bartlett
BornDecember 6, 1865
DiedApril 21, 1948(1948-04-21) (aged 82)

Early life and education

edit

She was born in 1865 to General George R. Latham and Caroline A. Thayer Latham.[1][2] Her father was a Congressman and later the U.S. consul to Australia.[1] She married Leonidas Bartlett in 1885. She attended the Maryland Institute at Baltimore in 1922 to study the fine arts.

Career

edit

Bartlett took up sculpting after her schooling. She developed a process which hardened local clays without firing them, mixing them with her own ingredients.[3] She would then paint and varnish her works so that they would resemble colored porcelain.[3] Many of her subjects were traditional busts, in addition to figures which related to West Virginia's culture and history.[4] She would also make figurines of some of her neighbors.[5] These neighbor portraits, with names like "Schoolma'am" and "Madonna of the Mountains" were featured in an exhibit at the International Institute in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in 1936.[5] Her work and similar have been described as "Southern Highland Potteries" after Allen H. Eaton's book Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands which described works by Bartlett and others.[6]

Her work is held in The Johnston Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina.[7]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b c Tenney, Noel. "Annie Latham Bartlett". West Virginia Encyclopedia. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  2. ^ "March 9, 1832: Politician George Latham Born in Prince William County". WVPB. 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  3. ^ a b Eaton, Allen H. (1937). Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands (PDF). New York: Russell Sage Foundation. p. 216. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  4. ^ Temple, Drew (2022-05-10). "This Week in West Virginia History for Dec. 4-10". The Journal. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  5. ^ a b Ayers, Ruth (December 4, 1936). "West Virginia Mountain Woman Moulds Models of Her Neighbors". Pittsburgh Press. p. 18. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  6. ^ Ray, Marcia (2022-01-14). "Collectible ceramics". Internet Archive. Retrieved 2022-05-10.
  7. ^ "Index of Women Artists : The Johnson Collection, LLC :: The Johnson Collection, LLC". The Johnson Collection, LLC. Retrieved 2022-05-10.