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The Works of Rose O'Neill
The Artist and Sculptor
“I am in love with magic and monsters,
and the drama of form emerging from the formless.”
- Rose O’Neill
Rose O’Neill was steeped in Irish folklore and Greek mythology. She
believed in fairies, giants, and trolls. The influences of these are
unmistakable when you take in Rose’s personal work which she
described as “Sweet Monsters”. The drawings are unlike Rose’s other
work, with line suggesting the chisel rather than the brush.
The artistic vision for these works came to Rose on her first visit
to the Ozarks in 1894. Rose describes the trip in her autobiography;
“As darkness came the woods grew wilder. The heaped rocks with
twisted roots of trees made strange figures. I seemed to see
primeval shapes with slanted foreheads, deep arched necks, and
heaping shoulders playing on primordial flutes. I had a sort of
cloudy vision of pictures I was to make long afterwards-a great
female figure loomed out of the rocks holding mankind on her vast
bosom. That night there came to me the title of the unborn picture,
“The Nursing Monster.”
When the drawings were first shown to the public in Paris, they were
described as “powerful, brilliant, and original”.
Sweet Monsters Gallery
(Click thumbnail for full view.)
Sculpture Gallery
(Click thumbnail for full view.)
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