Elisabet Ney

Ney was born in Münster, in the Province of Westphalia, to Johann Adam Ney, a stonecarver and alleged nephew of Field Marshal Michel Ney,[1] and Anna Elizabeth on January 26, 1833.[2][3] The only other surviving child in the Ney family was her older brother, Fritz. Her parents were Catholics of Alsatian-Polish heritage. She was the great-niece of Michel Ney, Marshal of France. Early in life, she declared that her goal was "to know great persons."[4][1]

While visiting friends in Heidelberg in 1853, Ney met a young Scottish medical student, scientist, and philosopher[16] named Edmund Montgomery. They kept in touch, and, although she viewed the institution of marriage as a state of bondage for women, after he established a medical practice in Madeira, they were married at the British consulate there on November 7, 1863.

Ney, however, remained outspoken about women's roles. She refused to use Montgomery's name, often denied she was even married, and once remarked:[4][1][17]

Women are fools to be bothered with housework. Look at me; I sleep in a hammock which requires no making up. I break an egg and sip it raw. I make lemonade in a glass, and then rinse it, and my housework is done for the day.

She wore pants and rode her horses astride as men did. She liked to fashion her own clothes, which, in addition to the slacks, included boots and a black artist frock coat.[6]

Montgomery was diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1863. By 1870, the Franco-Prussian War had begun. In autumn of that year, Ney became pregnant with their first child. Montgomery received a letter from his friend, Baron Carl Vicco Otto Friedrich Constantin von Stralendorff of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, who had moved to Thomasville, Georgia with his new wife, Margaret Elizabeth Russell of Boston, Massachusetts, declaring the location "Earth's paradise."[18] On January 14, 1871, Ney and Montgomery, accompanied by their housekeeper, Cenci, immigrated to Georgia, to a colony promoted as a resort for consumptives. Their first son, Arthur, was born there in 1871, but died two years later (possibly of diphtheria, but the cause of death is disputed).[1][19] Unfortunately, the Thomasville colony did not work out as they had hoped. Baron and Baroness von Stralendorff returned to Wismar, Germany where he died on July 1, 1872.[20][21][22]

Ney and Montgomery looked elsewhere in the United States for a place to live, including Red Wing, Minnesota, where their second son, Lorne (1872–1913), was born. Later that year, Ney traveled alone to Texas. With the help of Julius Runge a businessman in Galveston, she was shown Liendo Plantation near Hempstead in Waller County. On March 4, 1873, Montgomery and the rest of the family arrived, and they purchased the plantation. While he tended to his research, she ran it for the next twenty years.

Ney died in her studio on June 29, 1907, and is buried next to Montgomery, who died four years later, at Liendo Plantation.[23]

Upon her death, Montgomery sold the Formosa studio to Ella Dancy Dibrell. As per her wishes, its contents were bequeathed to the University of Texas at Austin, but were to remain in the building. On April 6, 1911, Dibrell and other friends established the Texas Fine Arts Association (after more than a century in existence, the organization is now known as the Contemporary Austin) in her honor.[3][2][24] It is the oldest Texas-wide organization existing for support of the visual arts. Formosa is now the home of the Elisabet Ney Museum. In 1941, the City of Austin took over the ownership and operation.[8][11][25]

In 1961, Lake Jackson Primary School in Lake Jackson, Texas was renamed Elisabet Ney Elementary School in her honor.[26]

• 
  Portrait bust of Jacob Grimm
• 
  Elisabeth Ney c. 1859 with a bust of Arthur Schopenhauer
• 
  Portrait bust of Eilhard Mitscherlich
• 
  Portrait bust of Giuseppe Garibaldi
• 
  Portrait statue of Ludwig II of Bavaria
• 
  Edmund Montgomery
• 
  Sam Houston
• 
  Elisabet Ney in her Atelier in Texas circa 1900
• 
  Lady Macbeth
• 
  Tomb of Albert Sidney Johnston in the Texas State Cemetery
• 
  Statue of Albert Sidney Johnston
• 
  Statue of Stephen F. Austin
  Given by Texas to the National Statuary Hall Collection
• 
  Statue of Sam Houston
  Given by Texas to the National Statuary Hall Collection
• 
  Elisabet Ney Museum

Below is a partial listing of her works.[27]

• Selected Bibliography, Elisabet Ney Museum Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine
• Cutrer, Emily Fourmy, The Art of the Woman: The Life and Work of Elisabet Ney, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1988 (ISBN 0-8032-1438-3)
• Fortune, Jan and Jean Barton, Elisabet Ney, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1943
• Hendricks, Patricia D. and Becky Duval Reese, A Century of Sculpture in Texas: 1889–1989 (exhibition catalog), Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1989
• Little, Carol Morris, A Comprehensive Guide to Outdoor Sculpture in Texas, University of Texas Press, Austin, Texas, 1996 (ISBN 0-292-76034-5)

• Media related to Elisabet Ney at Wikimedia Commons
• Elisabet Ney from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Official site of the Elisabet Ney Museum
• Elisabet Ney, Sculptor, hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• "Lady Macbeth" Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Entry for Elisabet Ney on the Union List of Artist Names
• www.austintexas.gov/Elizabetney