Monumental Dreams: The Life and Sculpture of Ann Norton

225 Pages·2014·4.64 MB·English

by  Caroline Seebohm

Monumental Dreams
University Press of Florida
Florida A&M University, Tallahassee
Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton
Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers
Florida International University, Miami
Florida State University, Tallahassee
New College of Florida, Sarasota
University of Central Florida, Orlando
University of Florida, Gainesville
University of North Florida, Jacksonville
University of South Florida, Tampa
University of West Florida, Pensacola

Monumental
Dreams
THE LIFE AND
SCULPTURE OF
ANN NORTON
Caroline Seebohm
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA
Gainesville · Tallahassee · Tampa · Boca Raton · Pensacola
Orlando · Miami · Jacksonville · Ft. Myers · Sarasota
Copyright 2014 by Caroline Seebohm
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on
acid-free paper
This book may be available in an electronic
edition.
19 18 17 16 15 14 6 5 4 3 2 1
Frontispiece: Ann at work carving with a chisel
in her studio. Photo courtesy of ANSG.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data
Seebohm, Caroline.
Monumental dreams : the life and sculpture of
Ann Norton / Caroline Seebohm.
pages cm
isbn 978-0-8130-4977-9
1. Norton, Ann Weaver, 1905–1982—Biography.
2. Women sculptors—United States—Biography.
3. Sculpture, American. I. Title.
nb237.n67s44 2014
730.92—dc23
[B]
2013047858
The University Press of Florida is the scholarly
publishing agency for the State University
System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M
University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida
Gulf Coast University, Florida International
University, Florida State University, New
College of Florida, University of Central
Florida, University of Florida, University of
North Florida, University of South Florida, and
University of West Florida.
University Press of Florida
15 Northwest 15th Street
Gainesville, FL 32611-2079
http://www.upf.com
Contents
Prologue 1
PartI. Southern Roots: PartIII.FromAnnieVaughan Weaver
Selma,Alabama, 1905–1930 toAnnNorton:Florida, 1943–1953
1. The Origins of a Great 9. The Savior from Chicago 83
Alabama Family 7
10. A Reticent Romance 96
2. Childhood in Selma 13 11. Marriage and a New Life 103
3. Early Success 22 12. A Growing Confidence 114
PartII. The Art World in Turmoil: PartIV. The Journey to the Source:
NewYork, 1930–1942 Florida, 1954–1982
4. A Tumultuous Education 33 13. New Freedom, New Work 127
5. The Emergence of an Artist 40 14. Figures in the Landscape 133
6. A Rare Friendship 47 15. East and West, New
Relationships 140
7. Career Challenges 59
16. Dreams of Selma 151
8. A Turning Point 70
17. Time Runs Out 158
18. The Garden as Legacy 166
List of Exhibitions 175
Notes 177
Acknowledgments 191
Index 195

Prologue
About a twenty-five-minute drive
from Selma, Alabama, at the spot
where the Alabama and Cahaba
Rivers meet, lies a ghost town. Once
this place was the first state capital
of Alabama, but nothing is left now
except some traces of streets, ruined
buildings, the odd foundation stone,
a crumbling cemetery.
In 1819 Cahawba (or Cahaba), a
piece of beautiful, undeveloped land
in the valley between the two rivers,
was made a gift to the state of Ala-
bama by President James Monroe. A
year later, the city was the humming
center of the state. But catastrophic
flooding from the rivers, plus the
city’s low-lying situation, which
encouraged yellow fever, forced
state officials to move the capital to
Tuscaloosa (and later to Montgom-
ery). Thus, the first city of Cahawba
vanished. It had lasted only six years.
But like a phoenix, Cahawba rose
again in the 1850s. The city was at
the center of the fertile Black Belt of
the state, and as the cotton business
exploded, the Alabama River became
1
the vital link for ferrying cotton from the vast plantations of the region to
the port of Mobile. Cahawba once again flourished, at its height boasting
over 3,000 residents. State offices and public buildings displayed the ele-
gant antebellum architecture of the time along streets with names like Vine,
Chestnut, and Walnut laid out in a grid, copying the venerable northern city
of Philadelphia. With the arrival of the railroad in 1859, the city achieved the
South’s “best and highest cultivation.”
But two years after this accolade, war, rather than natural disasters,
brought Cahawba’s glittering epoch to an end. Soon after the Civil War be-
gan, the Confederate government seized the railroad and tore it up in or-
der to lengthen the main line, and in 1863 an infamous makeshift prison for
Union soldiers was set up in the center of town. In 1865, while the Battle of
Selma raged a few miles away, the river waters once again inundated the
battered city.
There were to be no more miracles for Cahawba. Within ten years, the
townhouses had been dismantled or removed. A new rural community of
freed slave families took up residence on the foundations of their former
owners’ mansions, and the Philadelphia-style streets were turned into small
farm allotments. But even that transformation did not last. The conditions of
the site remained unforgiving, and soon everyone was gone.
There’s not much to see now. Straight, sandy roads lead to nowhere. An
artesian well, an outhouse for slaves, and the remains of a church gradually
arouse the imagination. Yes, this was indeed once quite a place.
The most powerful remnant of Cahawba’s glory, however, is discovered
almost by accident. Walk through a leafy, dark, tunnel-like pathway, over-
grown with shrubs and weeds, and you stumble into a glade punctuated
by three enormous, circular brick columns. Higher than telegraph poles and
crumbling at the top, they stand alone in the clearing, monumental relics to
a glamorous past.
These columns were part of a house built in 1843 by Richard Crocheron for
his northern bride. The Crocherons, a shipping family, had opened a store in
Cahawba, and Richard came down from Staten Island in 1837 to help run it.
His house reflected the prosperity of the time. Beautifully sited at the conflu-
ence of the two rivers, it was made of brick, with porches and big windows.
The columns were part of a side portico.
But when his wife died in 1850 (of yellow fever? childbirth?), Richard
was so devastated that he abandoned Cahawba and returned for good to
2 · Monumental Dreams: The Life and Sculpture of Ann Norton
New York with his children. After that the house, like the rest of Cahawba,
disappeared.
But not these three brick columns. They still stand, obstinate obelisks
recalling a southern ghost story. An artist—a sculptor—on seeing them,
would not be likely to forget them.
Prologue · 3