—And by Janet Scudder

Abstract

In that honest and interesting autobiography, Modeling My Life, Miss Janet Scudder, the sculptress, tells of her various encounters with Stanford White during the winters of 1905–6. White was then at the top of his success, busy with his designs for the Gorham and Tiffany Buildings, and the Madison Square Presbyterian Church. But though his work had always appealed more to Miss Scudder than did the work of any other architect, somehow she seemed destined never to meet him. She had often seen him in Paris in MacMonnies’ studio when the two were working together on the models for an arch to be put up at the entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn: but since she was only an assistant she had had no opportunity to come into more than the most casual contact with him. He was, she says, one of the biggest men she had ever seen, tall, broad, with a red face and a mop of red hair that stood straight up from his forehead. His quick, nervous gestures, his assurance in knowing what was right and what was wrong, and his almost infallible taste made a lasting impression on her.