Julia Wendt

Artist Details

• First Name Julia
• Middle Name M
• Maiden Name Bracken
• Alternate Name(s) exhibited as Julia Bracken
• Surname Wendt
• Spouse’s Full Name William Wendt; landscape painter; met in hotel while working on the 1893 Fair; married 1906 German immigrant to American at age 15
• Birth Date June 10, 1871
• Birth Place Apple River, Illinois
• Death Date June 22, 1942
• Death Place Laguna Beach, California
• Ethnicity Irish
• Residence(s) 1876: Galena, Illinois
  
  1892-1893: hotel near grounds of World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois; with Janet Scudder, Carol Brooks, Enid Yandell, Bessie Potter Vonnoh
  
  1906-1936: Los Angeles, California
  
  summer 1908: Chicago, Illinois
  
  1909-1910: Chicago, Illinois
  
  1936-1942: Laguna Beach, California
  
  Englewood, Illinois
• Active In Chicago, Illinois
  
  Los Angeles, California
• Studio Location(s) #19 Studio Tree Bldg., State & Ontario streets, Chicago, Illinois 1906-?: 2814 N. Sichel St., Los Angeles, California; with her husband
• Categories Sculptor
• Training 1887-1892: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Student of Lorado Taft; paid for by Alice Stahl
  
• Subject(s) of Art Array
• Exhibitions History 1893: World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
  
  1895: Annual Exhibition, Palette Club, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
  
  May 1-October 31, 1897: Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition, Nashville, Tennessee:  Relief; Bust of Child
  
  Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 1899-1910: (9 times)
  
  February 3-?, 1903: Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago and Vicinity Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; Mrs. Patrick Campbell
  
  January 29-February 24, 1907: Exhibition of Works by Chicago Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois: Memorial Tablet, plaster
  
  1904: Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St Louis, Missouri
  
  1905: Chicago Municipal League, Chicago, Illinois
  
  1908: The Chicago Society of Artists, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; bronze relief; An American Girl, plaster
  
  1909: exhibit of work by both Wendts, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; 16 plaster sculptures
  
  1915: Pan-California Expo, San Diego, California
  
  1918: California Art Club,
  
  1921: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois [exhibit with husband]
  
  1929: National Sculpture Society,
  
  National Sculpture Society, Los Angeles Museum, Los Angeles, California
• Collections Vanderpoel Art Museum Collection
  
  Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
• Publications Clark, Katherine, “Julia Bracken Wendt,” Women Building Chicago 1790-1990: A Biographical Dictionary (edited by Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast “Girls with Genius,” Topeka State Journal, 1892 Haynes, Landon. “Julia Braken Wendt: California Women of Distinction,” Los Angeles Times, March 9, 1924 James, Eleanor Minturn, “From Gingerbread Men to Sculpture,” Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1930 Maxwell, Everett C. “The Art of Julia Bracken Wendt, Noted Sculptures,” Fine Arts Journal, November 1910 Moure, Nancy Dustin W. Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California before 1930, 1978 Peattie, Wlia W. “Child Studies by Chicago Sculptors.” The Federation Bulletin, January 1910. Rubinstein, Charlotte Streifer. American Women Sculptors: A History of Women Working in Three Dimensions. 1990
• Memberships Bohemia Guild, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Chicago Society of Artists, Chicago, Illinois [served on board]
  
  Chicago Municipal Art League, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Cosmopolitan Art Club, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Industrial Art League, Chicago, Illinois [served on board]
  
  Municipal Art League, Chicago, Illinois [served on board]
  
  Society of Western Artists, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Los Angeles Fine Art Association, Los Angeles, California [3 years]
  
  California Art Society, Los Angeles, California [helped start it]
  
  NAC
  
  Three Arts Club of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
  
  Laguna Beach Art Association, Laguna Beach, California
• Awards Missionary Ridge, Tennessee
  
  1898: Sculpture Prize, Chicago, Illinois [first one in Chicago for sculpture]
  
  1905: Municipal Art League Prize, Chicago, Illinois
  
  1915: Gold Medal, Pan-California Exposition, San Diego, California
  
  1918: Harrison Prize, Los Angeles, California
  
   
  
  Commissions: 1892: Illinois Welcoming the Nations for Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
  
  Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California
  
  Battle Monument,
• Other Occupation(s) 1984: domestic, home of Alice B. Stahl, Evanston, Illinois
  
  1887-1892: Member of White Rabbits group helping Lorado Taft complete sculpture for Columbian Expo 1893
  
  7 years: Teacher, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, California
• Website(s) page on the "Women Out West" blog
• Biography Parents:  Andrew and Mary McNamara Bracken
  
  Siblings:  12
  
  after the 1893 Fair, she cared for her terminally ill father and orphaned children of one sister
  
  suffragette; see her “Open Letter” in Anthony E. Anderson’s column, “Art and Artists,” Los Angeles Times, Decembe 26, 1898
  
  see also Los Angeles Times, September 7, 1919