Jump to content

Thelma Wood: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
clean up source citations
Line 23: Line 23:


==Early life==
==Early life==
Wood was born in [[Mankato, Kansas]], the second of four children, to Maud Crawford Wood and William Barg Wood.<ref name="find a grave">{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107651016|title=Thelma Ellen Wood|publisher=Find a Grave}}</ref> Her father later moved the family to [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref name='Queer Encyclopedia'>{{cite book |title=The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts |author=Claude J. Summers |url=https://books.google.com/?id=sNCJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA350&dq=thelma+wood#v=onepage&q&f=false |publisher=Cleis Press |date=2004 |page=350|isbn=9781573441919 }}</ref> In 1918 her mother and younger brother succumbed to the [[influenza epidemic of 1918]].<ref name="find a grave"/> Two months previous to their deaths, Wood enrolled at the St. Louis School of Fine Art at [[Washington University]].<ref name='dreams'/> It is likely there that she learned the technique of [[silverpoint]] drawing, for which she is best known.<ref name='dreams'/> In 1920, Wood and a fellow art student, Myra Marglous, applied for passports and left for Paris to continue studying art.<ref name='dreams'>{{Cite journal|title=Dreams of a Lost Modernist: A Reevaluation of Thelma Wood |journal=Modernist Cultures |author=Joanne Winning |publisher=Modernist Cultures |volume=8 |issue=2, |pages=288–322 |date= Oct 2013 |url=http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/mod.2013.0066|doi=10.3366/mod.2013.0066 }}</ref>
Wood was born in [[Mankato, Kansas]], the second of four children, to Maud Crawford Wood and William Barg Wood.<ref name="find a grave">{{cite web|url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107651016|title=Thelma Ellen Wood|publisher=Find a Grave}}</ref> Her father later moved the family to [[St. Louis, Missouri]].<ref name='Queer Encyclopedia'>{{cite book |title=The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts |first=Claude J. |last=Summers |url=https://books.google.com/?id=sNCJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA350&dq=thelma+wood#v=onepage&q&f=false |publisher=Cleis Press |date=2004 |page=350|isbn=9781573441919 }}</ref> In 1918 her mother and younger brother succumbed to the [[influenza epidemic of 1918]].<ref name="find a grave"/> Two months previous to their deaths, Wood enrolled at the St. Louis School of Fine Art at [[Washington University]].<ref name='dreams'/> It is likely there that she learned the technique of [[silverpoint]] drawing, for which she is best known.<ref name='dreams'/> In 1920, Wood and a fellow art student, Myra Marglous, applied for passports and left for Paris to continue studying art.<ref name='dreams'>{{Cite journal|title=Dreams of a Lost Modernist: A Reevaluation of Thelma Wood |journal=Modernist Cultures |first=Joanne |last= Winning |publisher=Modernist Cultures |volume=8 |issue=2, |pages=288–322 |date= Oct 2013 |url=http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10.3366/mod.2013.0066|doi=10.3366/mod.2013.0066 }}</ref>


==Relationships==
==Relationships==
Line 37: Line 37:


==Career==
==Career==
Although very little of her work survives, Wood's sketchbook from a trip to [[Berlin]] remains in the Barnes papers at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]].<ref name="Queer Encyclopedia" /> Her work drew strongly on images from nature.<ref name="refiguring">{{cite web |title=Refiguring Modernism: Postmodern feminist readings of Woolf, West, and Barnes |author=Bonnie Kime Scott |page=75 |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVsMbSGbuKkC&pg=PR9&lpg=PR9&dq=thelma+wood+university&source=bl&ots=46_48-q8lp&sig=pU_NPSfdsrVxMiYRAZyHk7SsuPg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii-vjO9ubMAhVIPT4KHfAlC-M4ChDoAQg6MAY#v=onepage&q=thelma%20wood&f=false}}</ref><ref>Jane Marcus, "Laughing at Leviticus: ''Nightwood'' as Woman's Circus Epic," in ''Silence and Power: A Revaluation of Djuna Barnes'', edited by Mary Lynn Broe (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), page 227.</ref> Wood's silverpoint drawings were exhibited at least once, at Milch Galleries in [[New York City]] in 1931 where [[Mary Fanton Roberts]] reviewed her work favorably.<ref>Mary Fanlon Roberts, "Speaking of Art," Arts & Decoration, XXXJV (January 1931), p. 70.</ref>
Although very little of her work survives, Wood's sketchbook from a trip to [[Berlin]] remains in the Barnes papers at the [[University of Maryland, College Park]].<ref name="Queer Encyclopedia" /> Her work drew strongly on images from nature.<ref name="refiguring">{{cite web |title=Refiguring Modernism: Postmodern feminist readings of Woolf, West, and Barnes |first=Bonnie Kime |last=Scott |page=75 |publisher=Indiana University Press |date=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVsMbSGbuKkC&pg=PR9&lpg=PR9&dq=thelma+wood+university&source=bl&ots=46_48-q8lp&sig=pU_NPSfdsrVxMiYRAZyHk7SsuPg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwii-vjO9ubMAhVIPT4KHfAlC-M4ChDoAQg6MAY#v=onepage&q=thelma%20wood&f=false}}</ref><ref>Jane Marcus, "Laughing at Leviticus: ''Nightwood'' as Woman's Circus Epic," in ''Silence and Power: A Revaluation of Djuna Barnes'', edited by Mary Lynn Broe (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), page 227.</ref> Wood's silverpoint drawings were exhibited at least once, at Milch Galleries in [[New York City]] in 1931 where [[Mary Fanton Roberts]] reviewed her work favorably.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Mary Fanlon |title=Speaking of Art |journal=Arts & Decoration |date=January 1931 |volume=XXXJV |page=70}}</ref>


==Later life==
==Later life==
Around 1942 or 1943, her relationship with Metcalf had deteriorated to a breaking point due to Wood's unfaithful sexual activities and lack of any gainful employment. Metcalf offered Wood money to move out of their shared house and effectively ended their sixteen-year relationship. Once the separation was complete, Metcalf reportedly never spoke to Wood again, even when Wood, dying, is said to have requested to see her.<ref name=HBMietka/>
Around 1942 or 1943, her relationship with Metcalf had deteriorated to a breaking point due to Wood's unfaithful sexual activities and lack of any gainful employment. Metcalf offered Wood money to move out of their shared house and effectively ended their sixteen-year relationship. Once the separation was complete, Metcalf reportedly never spoke to Wood again, even when Wood, dying, is said to have requested to see her.<ref name=HBMietka/>
Wood became involved with Margaret Behrens, a fairly wealthy [[realtor]] and antique dealer, and she moved into Behrens' home in [[Monroe, Connecticut]]. They were together until Wood's death.<ref name="Queer Encyclopedia"/>
Wood became involved with Margaret Behrens, a [[realtor]] and antique dealer, and she moved into Behrens' home in [[Monroe, Connecticut]]. They were together until Wood's death.<ref name="Queer Encyclopedia"/>


==Death==
==Death==

Revision as of 07:10, 11 February 2019

Thelma Wood
Born
Thelma Ellen Wood

(1901-07-03)July 3, 1901
Kansas, United States
DiedDecember 10, 1970(1970-12-10) (aged 69)
Danbury, Connecticut, United States
NationalityAmerican
Known forSculpture, drawings

Thelma Ellen Wood (July 3, 1901 – December 10, 1970) was an American sculptor and silverpoint artist. She is best known for her lesbian relationships, particularly with Djuna Barnes who fictionalized their relationship in Nightwood.

Early life

Wood was born in Mankato, Kansas, the second of four children, to Maud Crawford Wood and William Barg Wood.[1] Her father later moved the family to St. Louis, Missouri.[2] In 1918 her mother and younger brother succumbed to the influenza epidemic of 1918.[1] Two months previous to their deaths, Wood enrolled at the St. Louis School of Fine Art at Washington University.[3] It is likely there that she learned the technique of silverpoint drawing, for which she is best known.[3] In 1920, Wood and a fellow art student, Myra Marglous, applied for passports and left for Paris to continue studying art.[3]

Relationships

While in Paris, Wood frequented Berlin and was said to have enjoyed excessive alcohol consumption, and being involved in casual sexual relationships. Accounts have described her as "boyish-looking", standing almost 6 feet tall, and "sexually magnetic".[2]

In the fall of 1921, Wood and photographer Berenice Abbott met. They were briefly lovers and remained close friends for life.[2] She later introduced Wood to poet Djuna Barnes, and made photographic portraits of both of them.[4] Wood also had a brief relationship with the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay during the early 1920s.[5]

Wood's relationship with Djuna Barnes began in 1921 and ended in 1929. Barnes was known for her jealousy with her lovers; Wood was known to be promiscuous with many women. Their relationship was deemed the "great love" of each of their lives, though fueled by sex, alcohol, and marred by infidelities, jealousy, and violence. Although Barnes wanted their relationship to be monogamous, Wood regularly sought out casual sexual partners of both sexes. Barnes, also, was never faithful.

Wood soon became involved in an affair with a wealthy woman named Henriette Alice McCrea-Metcalf (1888–1981), which effectively caused Barnes to end her relationship with Wood.[2][6] When Wood moved to Greenwich Village in New York City in 1928, Metcalf followed. Wood continued to write and visit Barnes, to whom Wood still professed her love, and the two did occasionally have sexual encounters during that time, but Barnes refused to become involved with Wood on a regular basis. By 1932, Wood was more of an unofficial courtesan to Metcalf, and Metcalf supported Wood's art studies in Florence. In 1934, they moved to Sandy Hook, Connecticut. In Westport, Connecticut, Wood tried (with Metcalf's financial assistance) to run a gourmet catering business that failed. Her relationship with Metcalf was complicated by Wood continuing to seek out drinking and sexual companions of both sexes, and Wood became increasingly unfaithful.[2]

When Nightwood, Barnes' best-known novel, was published in 1936, Wood, called "Robin Vote" in the book, was outraged and stopped speaking to Barnes completely. Wood is said to have felt misrepresented, and claimed that the publication of the book ruined her life. Barnes reportedly did not object to their no longer speaking to one another, and never made any apologies.[2]

Career

Although very little of her work survives, Wood's sketchbook from a trip to Berlin remains in the Barnes papers at the University of Maryland, College Park.[2] Her work drew strongly on images from nature.[7][8] Wood's silverpoint drawings were exhibited at least once, at Milch Galleries in New York City in 1931 where Mary Fanton Roberts reviewed her work favorably.[9]

Later life

Around 1942 or 1943, her relationship with Metcalf had deteriorated to a breaking point due to Wood's unfaithful sexual activities and lack of any gainful employment. Metcalf offered Wood money to move out of their shared house and effectively ended their sixteen-year relationship. Once the separation was complete, Metcalf reportedly never spoke to Wood again, even when Wood, dying, is said to have requested to see her.[6] Wood became involved with Margaret Behrens, a realtor and antique dealer, and she moved into Behrens' home in Monroe, Connecticut. They were together until Wood's death.[2]

Death

Wood died of metastasized breast cancer in Danbury Hospital in 1970. Her ashes were interred in the Behrens family plot in Bridgeport, Connecticut.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Thelma Ellen Wood". Find a Grave.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Summers, Claude J. (2004). The Queer Encyclopedia of the Visual Arts. Cleis Press. p. 350. ISBN 9781573441919.
  3. ^ a b c Winning, Joanne (Oct 2013). "Dreams of a Lost Modernist: A Reevaluation of Thelma Wood". Modernist Cultures. 8 (2, ). Modernist Cultures: 288–322. doi:10.3366/mod.2013.0066.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  4. ^ Corinne, Tee A. (2002). "Wood, Thelma Ellen". glbtq: An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Archived from the original on 2006-10-16. Retrieved 2006-09-21. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ Herring, Phillip (1995). Djuna: The Life and Work of Djuna Barnes. New York: Penguin Books. p. 158. ISBN 0-14-017842-2.
  6. ^ a b Helene Budzynska Mietka. "Henriette McCrea Metcalf". Henriette and Henriette:The Life of a Women. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  7. ^ Scott, Bonnie Kime (1995). "Refiguring Modernism: Postmodern feminist readings of Woolf, West, and Barnes". Indiana University Press. p. 75.
  8. ^ Jane Marcus, "Laughing at Leviticus: Nightwood as Woman's Circus Epic," in Silence and Power: A Revaluation of Djuna Barnes, edited by Mary Lynn Broe (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1991), page 227.
  9. ^ Roberts, Mary Fanlon (January 1931). "Speaking of Art". Arts & Decoration. XXXJV: 70.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thelma_Wood&oldid=882775684"