Emma Marie Cadwalader-Guild, also spelled Cadwallader-Guild (August 27, 1843 – c. 1911) was an American sculptor and painter, notable for her portrait busts of figures such as President William McKinley, Andrew Carnegie, and George Frederick Watts, as well other sculptures. She worked primarily in marble and bronze, and her works were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, the 1894 Paris Salon, the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, where she won a bronze medal. Cadwalader-Guild spent much of her career abroad and was particularly well known in England and Germany.
Life and career
Cadwalader-Guild was born in Zanesville, Ohio in 1843. Her father, a doctor, was a member of the English Cadwallader family, and her name was spelled both Cadwalader and Cadwallader during her lifetime. Her mother painted with oils and watercolors, and Cadwalader-Guild herself showed an early interest in art. On October 8, 1861, she married Reverend Edward Chipman Guild of the Unitarian church. The pair had two children, Eliza and Rose.
After her marriage, Cadwalader-Guild and her husband lived in Waltham, Massachusetts, near Boston, where she spent time with local artists in their studios and attended William Rimmer's lectures on anatomy. Otherwise she had little formal training and was largely self-taught. She is said to have completed a lifesize David in clay in 1875, and her first recorded exhibition was in 1876 at the Women's Pavilion of the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.
One of Cadwalader-Guild's earliest works was a statue of an emancipated slave, created in 1876 and entitled Free. According to a frequently repeated story, which first appeared in a profile of the artist in 1904, the inspiration for the work came from her encounter with a dejected African-American man at the Boston market. After spending weeks creating a clay model of the man, she arranged for it to be cast in bronze in Italy. Although the original bronze has been lost, the composition of the sculpture is known from a copy in wood carved by German sculptor Otto Braun. In Braun's copy, the half-nude man leans against a tree trunk with his head down; his hands, held behind his back, are unbound, but from the front his posture suggests that he is still in chains. The ambivalence of the figure has been interpreted as a reflection of the lasting psychological effects of slavery and the ambiguous position of emancipated slaves in the Reconstruction era.
Portraiture was her primary subject matter; however, Cadwalader-Guild did create other forms. Her historical subjects include an Endymion in marble and a corresponding bronze statuette, a marble bust of Lotos/Lotus, a bust of the Head of St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, a marble figure of Electron/Electro/Elektron, and Psyche. Her historical subjects were praised for their originality and craftsmanship. She was also known for working without models.
Though her primary work was sculpture, she also painted, though mostly without patronage. Her focus was on still lives and landscapes. She also painted a series of oil sketches. Cadwalader-Guild often had showings of her work in her studio.
Once Free was completed, Cadwalader-Guild moved abroad in the mid-1880s, exhibiting and working in multiple cities. She placed Free in her London studio, where it was well-received by critics. She traveled and study the masters of art and opened studios in cities with strong art communities, including London, Berlin, Italy, and Frankfurt, to increase the profitability of her travels. While in Europe, she produced pieces that were well-received and brought her recognition including marble and bronze busts of British Prime Minister William Gladstone, who contacted her for in-person sittings, something he had not done with any other sculptor.
She returned to the United States at an unknown date to make a bust of President McKinley at the encouragement of then-United States Ambassador Andrew White. Cadwalader-Guild had long wanted to create a study of her fellow Ohioan. However, McKinley did not arrive to the scheduled sittings in the summer due to the campaign of 1900. She returned to Berlin and came back to the United States the following summer to meet McKinley in Canton, Ohio where he was staying. Again McKinley was too busy to pose for sittings but promised to sit for her when he returned to Washington D.C. in October. However, McKinley was assassinated in September 1901 and Cadwalader-Guild made the bust from photographs. Congress purchased the bust for $2,000. It was placed in the President's Room in the Capitol and moved to the Senate Marble Room in 2000.