Biografie von Florence WYLE (1881-1968)

Birth place: Trenton, IL

Death place: Toronto, Canada

Addresses: Chicago & Oak Park, IL, 1907-c.1911; Greenwich Village, NYC, c. 1912; Toronto, Canada, 1913-68

Profession: Sculptor, poet

Studied: Univ. Illinois; AIC with Charles Mulligan and Lorado Taft, 1907

Exhibited: AIC, 1908-1911; PAFA Ann., 1911; Paris, 1927; Tate Gal., London, 1938; medal from Queen Elizabeth, 1953; Art Mus., London, Ontario, 1962 (retro., with Frances Loring); Pollack Gal., Toronto, 1965 (retro. with Loring), 1969 (memorial); Ontario Soc. Artists; Royal Canadian Acad;

Member: Sculptors Soc. Canada (charter member); Royal Can. Acad., 1938 (first woman sculptor to be elected); Ontario Soc. Artists

Work: Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Nat. Gallery Canada; Winnipeg AG. Commissions: bronze statuettes for Canadian War Records Organization, 1919.

Comments: (Compare with Florence Wyle, appearing in WW10 as painter). Became a leading sculptor in Toronto after moving there in 1913 with friend and fellow sculptor Frances Loring (1887-1968). The two women met at the AIC and opened a Greenwich Village studio together before settling in Toronto, where they shared a studio/home until 1968. They also remodeled a church building that became a popular meeting place in Toronto for Canadian intellectuals during the 1920s and 1930s. Known as The Church," it is now a Canadian landmark. Wyle specialized in figures, portraits, and studies of animals, in bronze & marble.

Sources: Rubinstein, American Women Sculptors, 205-06; Petteys, Dictionary of Women Artists; P&H Samuels, 542; Falk, Exh. Record Series.