Boerne Community Theatre presents Copper Angel, written by Emily McClain, directed by Allen Rudolph, and selected for recognition by Theatre Network of Texas in the Annual Playwriting Competition, a PG-13 drama; March 31-- April 8; 907 E Blanco Road. For reservations refer to www. boernetheatre.org or call 830249-9166 for information.
Anna Coleman Ladd (1878-1939) is one of the few women artists whose work is included in the collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston. Ladd was a Philadelphia native and studied sculpture in Europe. Gardner purchased the lovely bust of Maria de Acosta Sargent directly from Ladd, a personal friend, in 1915. Sargent founded the American Red Cross Studio for Portraits-Masks, to provide prosthetic masks for men who had suffered severe facial injuries during World War I. At the Isabella Gardner, the bronze bust is placed before three of John Singer Sargent’s artworks-- the placement perhaps indicating the value of Ladd’s artistic talent to Gardner. After her European studies, Ladd returned to Boston and married Dr. Maynard Ladd, but continued to garner acclaim for her sensitive sculptures.
But it was not long before Ladd’s career took a significant turn towards public service.
Ladd traveled to France in 1917 during World War I with the American Red Cross, and it was there she discovered her calling. She established a prosthetics workshop in Paris, and utilized her skills to create individually sculpted masks for soldiers who had received severe facial injuries. More than 600,000 French soldiers were permanently disabled, with an estimate of 20,000 due to facial wounds causing severe depression and social stigma.
Inspired by methods created by English artist, Francis Derwent Wood, who worked with British soldiers, Ladd and her assistants studied photographs taken before injuries were received. After numerous sessions working with the veterans, they would create a facial prosthetic for them. The custom masks, made of copper, covered the injuries and provided the veterans with renewed self-confidence. Hand-sculpted and painted, the masks not only matched the soldier’s pre-war appearance, but also the skin color.
In a letter Ladd wrote to her friend, Isabella Gardner, in July of 1920, she told her of her decision to put her art career on hold, in order to make prosthetics. In the letter she states, “...I have done better work than ever in my life before... absolutely uncompromising sculpture, as I saw it... expressing a need of the soul, or its combats; and the love of youth...which has been nearly swept away in this late hellish upheaval.” Within Ladd’s story of the “Copper Angel”, we can perhaps find hope, encouragement, and salvation.
HCCArts is sad to say goodbye to beloved Hill Country Sculptor, Doug Roper, whose works can be viewed at Carriage House Gallery and Helotes Art Gallery. Doug knew no strangers; he will be missed.
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