Archive for Life Events
#6 ~~ A “Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ Feb. 27, 2023
Posted by: | Comments“HAPPY BIRTHDAY
UNCLE HERMON”
HE WAS BORN 157 YEARS AGO TODAY
FEBRUARY 27TH, 1866
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (American, 1866-1947) CAROL BROOKS MACNEIL, N.D. Bronzed plaster 14 1/2″ x 8″ x 7 1/2″ Signed: H. A. MACNEIL. Photo by JOEL ROSENKRANZ 1986 (#5430)
THIS UNDATED CLAY PORTRAIT BUST OF
“CARRIE” BY HERMON
“Brooks-by-MacNeil” Portrait
closes Brooks~MacNeil Month ~~ on Feb. 27, 2023
Thanks, Joel Rosenkranz
This photo was included in an email to Jim Haas, MacNeil biographer, and myself from Joel Rosenkranz.
Hi Jim & Dan:
The upcoming exhibition on A.F Brooks in Kenilworth prompted me to go through photos I took in 1986 when I first visited descendants and purchased a variety of work including this portrait of Carol Brooks by Hermon.
It is plaster with a colored bronze surface.
I sold it in 1987 and have no idea where it is now but at least there is this record.
Best, Joel
So on this the 157th Anniversary of Hermon MacNeil’s birth, this portrait seems an appropriate “Last Look” for our Brooks~MacNeil Month of 2023.
Sculpted in clay, finished with bronze patina, the piece radiates a lot of love and care. Bearing no date by Hermon clay-portrait Bust of Carol (Carrie) Brooks MacNeil
NO DATE? Made by her husband, Hermon MacNeil at an unknown date.
WHAT Features might date it?
- it appears to be a “young Carrie” Possibly, dating to her early days before marriage?
- clay, but finished lovingly in a bronze patina;
- but never cast in bronze, which is an expensive process.
- seems to come from a period of a young sculptor, with more talent and more love than cash.
- preserved in unknown hands for 80+ years
- photographed and purchased by Joel Rosenkranz in 1986
- then sold in 1987
- NOW IN A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SOME WHERE, but
- HERE on //HermonAtkinsMacNeil.com FOR ALL TO ENJOY
ALL Offered to you NOW as a celebration of Carol “CARRIE” Brooks MacNeil.
AS OUR FINALE TO THIS
“2023 MACNEIL-BROOKS MONTH”
On the 157th Anniversary of
“Uncle Hermon MacNeil’s birth
February 27th, 1866.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Appeal:
If you have any history or insight about this piece
by Hermon MacNeil, PLEASE COMMENT HERE
or email us at HAMacNeil@gmail.com
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#1 Post ~ 2023 “MacNeil~Brooks” Month
Posted by: | Comments‘MacNeil Month’ becomes ‘MacNeil~Brooks Month’ in 2023
Hermon A MacNeil about 1895
Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks about 1895
Each February is MacNeil Month.This year it is MacNeil~Brooks Month
<- Two Sculptors made a young looking pair ->
From their first meeting at the
Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893,
to the Eagles Nest**
[a summer artist colony in Oregon, Illinois.]
then the Reinhart Award of 1895;
Hermon and Carrie knew what they wanted next. So…
Hermon MacNeil and Carol ‘Carrie’ Brooks
were married on Christmas Day 1895.
Here’s Hermon and Carrie nestled with some visiting MacNeils.
Left to right: Hermon, Carrie, Alice MacNeil (Hermon’s sister), Wilbur MacNeil (Hermon’s younger Brother), and Elizabeth Louisa Barlow (Wilbur’s wife). The child is Claude (son of Hermon and Carrie. Location: Side porch of MacNeil home at College Point, N.Y. [Credit: Photo courtesy of James Haas, MacNeil biographer].
James Haas, Hermon MacNeil biographer ==>
Jim dates the photo above as 1903. After identifying Hermon, Carrie, and Alice, he adds:
“The child sitting on his (Wilbur’s) lap is probably his nephew Claude, born in France in 1900. The woman to his left is Elizabeth Barlow who Wilbur had married in California in 1901. After earning a Master’s degree in Agriculture at Cornell where Hermon had taught, he moved to California to teach science in Petaluma high school. There he met and married Elizabeth Louisa Barlow a teacher in the Petaluma elementary school. In 1903 they left California for Honolulu; the photo likely taken prior to their departure. For the rest of his life Wilbur taught science at Oahu College later called Punahou School. During a visit in 1911, Hermon modeled a portrait bust of Elizabeth Barlow found on page 162 in Hermon Atkins MacNeil: American Sculptor in the Broad, Bright Daylight. During the visit, Hermon gave Wilbur a tour of the Poppenhusen Institute. He admired the building’s architecture, looked in on classes and was introduced to school head John Gyger Embree as well as faculty members and other Institute Trustees. Wilbur died in 1937, a highly regarded educator. The couple had no children.
Then Jim adds a 21st Century surprise:
a MacNeil ~ Obama connection!
If Punahou School sounds familiar, it was from this school that Barack Obama graduated.
Barack Obama (Class of ’79) was the 44th President of the United States. He attended Punahou from 5th grade until graduation. (’79), Harvard Law Review editor, U Chicago lecturer on Constitutional Law, Nobel, Grammy and Emmy winner, author, state basketball champion, US Senator, Elected 44th US President in 2008 and 2012.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
SOURCE: Brooklyn Daily Star, March 15,1911 [Courtesy of James Haas]
Wilbur MacNeil also visited
his brother Hermon in 1911.
Wilbur MacNeil toured the Poppenhusen Institute in College Point, Queens, NYC. (See news clipping)
Wilbur MacNeil was a distinguished visitor touring the Institute. He was escorted by two trustees of the Institute, namely, Dr. Hugh Gray and Hermon MacNeil (Wilbur’s older brother)
Jim Haas adds that “Dr. Hugh Gray was a physician in College Point between 1905 and 1915. His wife Geretrude was the daughter of Hermon Pratt, whoise sister was Mary Lash Pratt MacNeil.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Hermon MacNeil was born on February 27, 1866
Hermon’s older cousin, Tom Henry MacNeil (my grandfather),
was born on February 29th, 1860.
So February is MacNeil~Brooks Month in several ways.
This is the first of several postings that will celebrate this theme.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Related posts:
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- ~ ~ ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know” ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Hermon A. MacNeil ~ Success & Marriage! (7) 1895 Hermon Atkins MacNeil, American Sculptor (1866-1947) MacNeil’s bronze of…
- Hermon MacNeil ~ “The Most Happy Young Man I Know!” (6) ~ Christmas Day 1895 ~ In 1895, Amy Aldis Bradley…
- The MacNeil’s Chicago Wedding – Christmas Day 1895 (6) I sit here in Chicago during this Christmas Season, imagining…
- Hermon MacNeil’s ~~ Friend and Guide in 1895 ~~ “HAMLIN GARLAND” Grew up in South Dakota ~ [#1] (6) The Hamlin Garland Memorial Highway ~ Brown County, South Dakota…
- A 1894 Sculpture of Charles F. Browne ~ ~ ~ by Hermon A. MacNeil. (6) Out of public view, deep in the archives of the…
