Mark Sorensen with The Lady Who Walks in the Woods at the James Millikin Homestead
Spring is upon us at the Homestead! While we gear up for our last Fine Arts event this Sunday (more info here), our annual meeting took place last night, featuring Macon County Historian, Mark Sorensen. Mr. Sorensen spoke at length about a famous sculptress named Ida Stout. Ida was born in Decatur on January 20, 1881 and died, suddenly, in Rome, Italy, on Sept 2, 1927 after struggling with Roman Fever for two weeks. She grew up on the West End of Decatur at 607 W. Main St.
Sorensen gave us background not only on Ms. Stout, but also about her career, her mentors and teachers, and some of her sculptures.
One of her sculptures was commissioned by the Mary W. French School in Decatur. The Goose Girl fountain currently resides in the lower hall of the school. Sorensen, as well as all of us at the Homestead, sincerely hope that the City of Decatur helps to preserve this piece of art and history, regardless if the school is razed or not. Ida was a former pupil of Miss Katherine Dempsey, a long-time teacher and the first principal at the school, and the fountain was to be dedicated to her memory after her passing. It was to be placed in the lower hall on the east, opposite the door of the room that belonged to Miss Dempsey. The fountain was installed circa June 1916.
Sorensen (pictured above), stands next to one of Ida’s works of art, entitled Lady Who Walks in the Woods. This piece stands in the Homestead today, the Art Institute having purchased it circa January of 1929. It now sits on the mantle in our South Parlor. Sorensen explained that this was the last sculpture Ida completed before passing. Many of her works were inspired by poetry. Approximately two years before creating this piece, she wrote a poem with the same title, and Sorensen read the poem aloud:
Lady Who Walks in the Woods
She walks in the woods.
I see her softly glide from tree to tree;
And silently she pauses
Looks around intent
To catch the faintest sound
Of aught unfriendly
Her long silent drapery
Gleams as she passes
Through gloomy giant pines
And silver birches
While tender lacy ferns
of palest green
Stretch forth their velvet fronds
of her long hair
Ida wrote the poem in 1925 while spending a summer in the MacDowell Colony in Peterboro, New Hampshire. Two years later, while in Rome, she created the sculpture that now sits in the Homestead. You can see it the next time you take a tour!
One of her most famous pieces, Charitas, won 1st place in a competition sponsored by the Chicago Daily News. The model was turned into a full-size sculpture and placed on a circular fountain just west of the Daily News Sanitarium for Sick Babies. Its current location is in Lincoln Park south of Theater on the Lake.
Portrait of Ida Stout in 1923. Digitized as a part of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Campus History project by Thomas C. Buechele and Nicholas C. Lowe, 2016-2017
Goose Girl Fountain – Photo taken by Mark Sorensen
Charitas at its existing location in Lincoln Park south of Theater on the Lake, 2018. Photo courtesy of Jeff Zoline.
Watch the entire video of Mark Sorensen’s presentation at the James Millikin Homestead on April 25, 2024:
Sources:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64934866/ida-mcclelland-stout
https://digitalcollections.saic.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A41020
https://www.jbachrach.com/blog/2019/6/27/charitas-and-its-sculptor-ida-mccelland-stout
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