Three Artists

Three women, three special stories, treated by three authors, in two books. One calls itself “the life” of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle as if they were joined at birth and never separated, which, in fact, they hardly ever were. Both born in the American midwest in the 1880s, they met at the Art Institute of Chicago, which offered classes in life modelling and stone chiselling to future creators of monuments, fountains and architectural embellishments. Loring was not quite 20, Wyle six years older. They were schooled in neo-classicism, deemed the visual language most appropriate to a new democratic and nationalistic order. Just two of a legion of women aspiring to lead independent lives in an increasingly available professional world, they held great store by their foundations.

From Chicago, to the horror of Loring’s parents, she and Wyle made for Greenwich Village for a go at the Yankee version of la vie bohème. Getting down to work, Wyle modelled a...