Hildegarde Lasell Watson

Hildegarde Lasell Watson (December 28, 1888 – September 26, 1976) was an American actress, singer, writer and arts patron.

Hildegarde Lasell Watson
A black-and-white passport photograph, depicting a white woman wearing a large black hat, and a dress with a round white collar
Hildegarde Lasell Watson's U.S. passport photo, from 1921
BornDecember 28, 1888
DiedSeptember 26, 1976
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, writer
SpouseJames Sibley Watson
RelativesEmily Sibley Watson (mother-in-law)

Early life

Hildegarde Lasell was born in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, the daughter of Chester Whitin Lasell and Jessie Maude Keeler Lasell. She went to Florence to study art as a young woman.[1]

Career

Hildegarde Lasell was a concert singer.[2] "Miss Lasell sang with refinement and cultivation," commented a reviewer in 1936, "she is obviously a serious student of the meaning and values of the music she interprets."[3] She appeared in her husband's two short avant-garde films.[4] She played Madeline Usher in the silent horror film The Fall of the House of Usher (1928),[5] and Lot's wife in the Biblical adaptation Lot in Sodom (1933).[6] In the 1950s, she persuaded composer Alec Wilder to write an original soundtrack for the 1928 film.[5]

Watson was vice-president of the Rochester Historical Society, and wrote the history of the society's Woodside mansion in 1962.[1][7] She received a medal from the Rochester Museum and Science Center in 1972, alongside fellow recipients including Robert Jastrow, Roger Tory Peterson, and Yousuf Karsh.[8] Her memoir, The Edge of the Woods: A Memoir (1979), published posthumously.[9][10][11] Some of her correspondence with poet Marianne Moore was also published posthumously.[12]

Personal life and legacy

Hildegarde Lasell married filmmaker, radiologist, and literary editor James Sibley Watson Jr. in 1916.[13] Poet E. E. Cummings was an usher at their wedding.[14] They had two children, Michael (1918–2012), who became a scientist and musician,[15] and Jeanne (1921–1991). Hildegarde Lasell Watson died in 1976, at a hospital in Rochester, New York.[1]

Her widower donated some of her art collection to The College at Brockport, State University College of New York.[16] Objects and photographs related to Watson are in the collections of the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia,[17] the George Eastman Museum,[18] Yale University,[19] the New York Public Library,[20] and other institutions. A painted portrait of Hildegarde Lasell as a girl, from 1902, is in the National Portrait Gallery.[21] A 1925 statue of Watson by Gaston Lachaise is in the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, which was founded by her mother-in-law, Emily Sibley Watson; the Memorial Art Gallery also maintains the Sibley Watson Digital Archive.[22]

References

  1. "Painter, Actress, and Patron of Art". Democrat and Chronicle. 1976-09-27. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Church Women Plan Concert". The Indianapolis News. 1934-11-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Soprano Gives Meritous Recital". Carbondale Free Press. 1936-01-24. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  4. Horak, Jan-Christopher (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-garde, 1919-1945. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-299-14684-9.
  5. Brewer, Charles E. (2015). "The Rochester Amateurs and The Fall of the House of Usher". The Edgar Allan Poe Review. 16 (1): 44–53. doi:10.5325/edgallpoerev.16.1.0044. ISSN 2150-0428. JSTOR 10.5325/edgallpoerev.16.1.0044. S2CID 193230085.
  6. GMG (2006-03-28). "Lot in Sodom in the Rosenbach". The Rosenbach. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  7. Watson, Hildegarde Lasell; Rochester Historical Society (Rochester, N.Y.) (1962). "Woodside": a brief account of "Woodside" from 1838 to 1962 : and especially the last twenty years. Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester Historical Society. OCLC 3357794.
  8. Plutzik, Robert (1972-03-25). "Museum Says 'Thank you' with Medals". Democrat and Chronicle. pp. 17, 18. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  9. Watson, Hildegarde Lasell (1979). The edge of the woods: a memoir. OCLC 6544285.
  10. Warner, Jack (1980-06-03). "A Labor of Love About a World Gone By". Democrat and Chronicle. pp. 13, 14. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Hildegarde Watson Memoir Gains New Reader Interest". Democrat and Chronicle. 1982-04-11. p. 39. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  12. Moore, Marianne; Watson, Hildegarde Lasell (1976). Hoy, Cyrus Henry (ed.). Marianne Moore: letters to Hildegarde Watson (1933-1964). OCLC 24340831.
  13. "Wedded at Whitinsville". The Boston Globe. 1916-10-15. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-06-02 via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Miss Lasell a Bride". The New York Times. October 15, 1916. p. 19 via ProQuest.
  15. "Michael Watson Obituary". Legacy.com. 2012. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  16. "The College at Brockport Restores Historic E. E. Cummings Collection". Digital Commons, The College at Brockport: State University of New York. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  17. Person Record: Hildegarde Lassell Watson (d. 1976), The Rosenbach.
  18. Condax, Louis. "[Hildegarde Lasell Watson]". George Eastman House. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  19. Alyse Gregory Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
  20. "James Sibley Watson/The Dial Papers". New York Public Library. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  21. "Hildegarde Lasell". Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  22. "Sibley Watson Digital Archive". Retrieved 2021-06-01.
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