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Pamela Bianco

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Pamela Bianco (December 31, 1906 – 1994) was an English-born American painter, illustrator, and writer, who came to fame as a child prodigy in the 1910s.

Early life and education

Pamela Ruby Bianco was born on New Year's Eve in the Barnes district of London, the daughter of an Italian scholar and bookseller, Francesco Bianco,[1] and an English writer, Margery Williams Bianco (author of The Velveteen Rabbit). She was educated at home, though home for the Biancos was a shifting location, as the family lived in France, Italy, and the United States when Pamela was a child.

Her paintings and drawings were first exhibited as part of a children's show in Turin, then in London in 1919,[2] and in New York City in 1921.[3] After shows in several American cities, she returned to New York City for a more mature show when she was seventeen years old, at the Knoedler Gallery.[4] Among her early patrons were John Galsworthy, Walter de la Mare, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, Nina Wilcox Putnam, and Jo Davidson.[5][6]

Career

Bianco continued to exhibit her works into her twenties, in New York City and elsewhere.[7]

In 1928 a children's edition of poems from William Blake's Songs of Innocence, selected and illustrated by Bianco, was published.[8]

In her adult career, she wrote and illustrated children's literature, and continued to exhibit her art. Books written and illustrated by Bianco include The Starlit Journey: A Story (1933),[9] Playtime in Cherry Street (1948),[10] Books illustrated by Bianco include Oscar Wilde's The Birthday of the Infanta (1930),[11] Glenway Wescott's Natives of Rock (1925),[12] and Hazeltine and Smith's The Easter Book of Legends and Stories (1947).[13] She also illustrated several books by her mother, including The Skin Horse, The Adventures of Andy, and The Little Wooden Doll.

Bianco received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930.[14]

Personal life and legacy

Bianco married twice. Her first husband was Robert Schlick; they married in 1930 and divorced in 1955. She remarried in 1955 to fellow artist George Theodore Hartmann; he died in 1976. She had one son, Lorenzo Bianco Schlick, who became a dancer best known for appearing in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway and in the film version. Larry Bianco (as he was known professionally) died in April 1994, and Pamela Bianco died later that same year, at the age of 87.[15]

A retrospective exhibition of Pamela Bianco's works was mounted in 2004 in London at England & Co Gallery and an exhibition catalogue published.[16] A small collection of her papers, mostly illustrations, are at the University of Minnesota.[17]

Works by Pamela Bianco are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago,[18] the Museum of Modern Art,[19] the Brooklyn Museum,[20] the Whitney Museum of Art,[21] and the Carnegie Museum of Art,[22] among other institutions and private collections.

Drawings by Pamela Bianco

References

  1. ^ "Francesco Bianco, Retired Dealer in Rare Books, Dies in Arlington, Va., at 68" New York Times (July 22, 1946): 19.
  2. ^ "Wonder-Child Artist the Talk of London" Atlanta Constitution (July 21, 1919): 12. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  3. ^ Helen Appleton Read, "Pamela Bianco, Child Prodigy who 'Grew Up'" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 30, 1924): 5. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  4. ^ "Pamela Bianco Grows Up" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (March 9, 1924): 26. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  5. ^ "Drawings of 14-Year-Old Girl Win World's Praise at Many Art Exhibition" Fayetteville Observer (April 7, 1921): 8. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  6. ^ "A Girl Artist Who is Famous on Two Continents" Current Opinion 70(May 1921): 671-675.
  7. ^ "Pamela Bianco at Maturity Justifies Fame her Art Won When She Was Child Prodigy" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (December 18, 1927): 61. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  8. ^ Edwin Morgan, "Girl with the Brush" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (October 24, 1928): 38. via Newspapers.com Open access icon
  9. ^ "New Children's Books" New York Times (April 16, 1933): BR19.
  10. ^ Helen K. Lippmann, review of Playtime in Cherry Street, New York Times (November 14, 1948): BR57.
  11. ^ Oscar Wilde, The Birthday of the Infanta with drawings by Pamela Bianco (Macmillan 1930).
  12. ^ Jerry Rosco, "Glenway Wescott: The Poetic Career of a Novelist" Chicago Review 37(1)(Winter 1990): 122. DOI: 10.2307/25305480
  13. ^ Ellen Lewis Buell, review of The Easter Book of Legends and Stories, New York Times (April 6, 1947): BR27.
  14. ^ Pamela Bianco, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  15. ^ "Lorenzo Bianco Schlick, Dancer, 61" New York Times (April 30, 1994): 13.
  16. ^ Selina Mills, "Self-Taught Prodigy" The Spectator (December 11, 2004).
  17. ^ University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections, Pamela Bianco Papers.
  18. ^ Art Institute of Chicago collections, Pamela Bianco.
  19. ^ Pamela Bianco, "Pomegranate" Museum of Modern Art collections.
  20. ^ Pamela Ruby Bianco, Brooklyn Museum collections.
  21. ^ Pamela Bianco, "December" Whitney Museum of American Art.
  22. ^ Pamela Bianco, "The Balsam Tree" Carnegie Museum of American Art.
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