Renee Prahar

Renée Prahar (c. 1879 — August 17, 1962) also known as Irene Prahar, was an American sculptor and actress based in New York City and later in Connecticut.

Renee Prahar working, from a 1917 publication.

Early life

Irene Prahar was born in New York, of Bohemian ancestry.[1] She studied sculpture in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, working with Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle. While in Paris, she showed work at the Salon of the Société National des Beaux-Arts in 1911[2] and again in 1914.[3]

Career
A Study of Alla Nazimova by Renee Prahar, from a 1922 publication.

Prahar began working as a stage actress, in the company of actor Richard Mansfield.[4] She appeared with Mansfield in Old Heidelberg (1903-1904),[5] The Death of Ivan the Terrible (1905),[6] The Merchant of Venice (1906),[7] The Scarlet Letter (1906),[8] and Peer Gynt (1906).[9]

As a sculptor, Prahar created portrait busts[10] and human or animal figures, usually angular and stylized, in a method she called "Triangularism".[11] In 1922, she was hired to create monkey sculptures and architectural features to adorn the terrace of Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt.[12] Her "Fox Gate Posts" were featured in the 1931 opening of the American Women's Association's permanent gallery in 1931.[13] She also designed a medal for the American Women's Association, given as an award to distinguished women of the New York area.[14] The medal's first recipient in 1931 was Margaret Sanger.[15]

Critic Henry McBride called Prahar "a pioneer in the fantastic and the grotesque."[16] In the same year, the New York Times critic commented on Prahar's "remarkably cool intellectuality".[17]

In 1930 she wrote in protest of fellow sculptor George Grey Barnard's eviction from his studio space.[18] Later in her career, she designed and decorated homes in Connecticut, with George's daughter, Colette Barnard.[19]

Personal life

Renee Prahar died in 1962, aged 83 years, in New London, Connecticut.[19]

A small collection of Prahar's papers are in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.[20]

References
  1. Marian Hale, "Need Sculpture in Your Home" The Richmond Item (October 29, 1922): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  2. "Few Novel Exhibits in Junior Salon" New York Times (April 15, 1911): 3.
  3. "Many American Works at Salon" New York Times (April 12, 1914): C2.
  4. "Actress Will Get Her Jewels" The Sun (March 27, 1906): 12. via Newspapers.comopen access
  5. "Show Waits on Mansfield" New York Times (March 15, 1904): 9.
  6. "Mr. Mansfield as Ivan" New York Times (March 23, 1905): 9.
  7. "Mr. Mansfield as Shylock" Baltimore Sun (January 11, 1906): 12. via Newspapers.comopen access
  8. Burns Mantle, "The Scarlet Letter" Inter Ocean (May 9, 1906): 6. via Newspapers.comopen access
  9. "Peer Gynt in English Put on by Mansfield" New York Times (October 30, 1906): 9.
  10. "Actress Sculptor's Success" The Times-Democrat (July 2, 1911): 35. via Newspapers.comopen access
  11. "Suffragist Sculptress Strikes a New Note" The Woman Citizen (October 13, 1917): 376.
  12. "Monkeys Adorn Terrace" New York Times (February 9, 1922): 15.
  13. Edward Alden Jewell, "Woman's Gallery Opens Today" New York Times (July 1, 1931): 30.
  14. "Most Distinguished Woman of City Area to Get Medal" New York Times (November 8, 1931): N1.
  15. "Mrs. Sanger Named for Women's Prize" New York Times (November 10, 1931): 24.
  16. "Sculptural Fantasies to Lift After-War Gloom" Literary Digest (February 18, 1922): 28.
  17. "Sculptures by Renee Prahar" New York Times (February 5, 1922): 48.
  18. "Protests Grow Over Barnard Studio Eviction" Brooklyn Daily Eagle (November 19, 1930): 19. via Newspapers.comopen access
  19. "Renee Prahar, 83, Sculptor, is Dead" New York Times (August 19, 1962): 88.
  20. Renee Prahar Papers, 1912-1938, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
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