Sylvia Shaw Judson

Sylvia Shaw Judson (1897–1978), also known as Sylvia Shaw Haskins, was an American sculptor and teacher.

Early life and education

Shaw was born in 1897 in Lake Forest, Illinois, near Chicago, the daughter of prominent Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. She attended the Westover School in Connecticut. In 1917, she married Clay Judson (1892–1960), a Chicago lawyer. She studied with Anna Hyatt Huntington and Albin Polasek at the Art Institute of Chicago and went to Paris in 1920 to continue her studies under Antoine Bourdelle at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. Judson was influenced by Chinese sculpture and the work of French sculptor Aristide Maillol, whom she met in Paris.

Mrs. Judson had a son, Clay, who underwent a lobotomy to correct a behavioral problem. The surgery was not successful and Mr. Judson was eventually admitted to Friends Hospital, a Quaker Hospital in Philadelphia, PA in 1960's, where he lived until his death.

Sculptor and teacher

She won the Logan Prize in 1929 for her sculpture Little Gardener. She authored The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures and For Gardens and Other Places, The Sculpture of Sylvia Shaw Judson and taught sculpture at the American University in Cairo in 1963.

Judson had work exhibited at Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina; the White House, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; and the National Academy of Design, New York City. In 1926, she was awarded an honorable mention at the Chicago Art Club. In 1948 she was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1965.

Adult Life

As an adult, she joined the Religious Society of Friends and became an active participant in the church. In 1963, after the death of her first husband, she married Sidney Gatter Haskins (1893-1998), who was originally from England and a recent widower living in Illinois. He also joined the Religious Society of Friends and after her death moved to the Philadelphia area.

Works

Sculpture

• Spirit Of Electricity, 1931, adorning a substation in the Daley Plaza, Chicago.
• Bird Girl, 1936, bronze (used on the cover of the 1994 novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil)
• Mary Dyer, 1959, bronze, Boston Common, Boston; Race Street Friends Meetinghouse, Philadelphia[1]
• Rain Tree Fountain, on display at the Sterling Morton Library, Lisle, Illinois
• Girl With Baby On Shoulder, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Girl with a Squirrel, Kosciuszko Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (stolen in 1975)
• Apple Tree Children, 1967, bronze and wood, Lake Forest Library Children's Department, Lake Forest, Illinois
• Blessed Virgin and Christ Child, 1947, granite, Queen of Heaven Cemetery, Lake Forest, Illinois
• The Ballerina, 1958, Evanston Township High School, Evanston, Illinois
• Birds on Eggs, 1959, cast aluminum, Chicago Botanic Garden
• Mermaid, 1920, bronze, Chicago Botanic Garden
• Naughty Faun, 1921, Bedford stone, Chicago Botanic Garden
• Title & Date Unknown, Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois

Print

• The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures, 1982 Regnery Publishing, ISBN 0-89526-638-5
• For Gardens and Other Places, The Sculpture of Sylvia Shaw Judson
• Illustrations for Songs of a Baby's Day, To the Tune of The Very Gentle Jog. By Frances Shaw (mother), 1928

Further reading

• Sandra L. Underwood, The "Bird Girl", The Story of a Sculpture by Sylvia Shaw Judson, Schiffer Publishing, Limited, Atglen, PA, June 2006, ISBN 0-7643-2370-9

External links

• Sylvia Shaw Judson at Find a Grave