| Mabel Conkling | |
| Birth Name: | Mabel Viola Harris |
| Birth Date: | 17 November 1871 |
| Birth Place: | Boothbay, Maine, U.S |
| Death Place: | Boothbay Harbor, Maine, U.S. |
| Spouse: | David Paul Burleigh Conkling |
| Children: | 2 |
| Education: | Académie Julian Académie Vitti Académie Carmen Académie Colarossi |
Mabel Harris Conkling (November 17, 1871 – October 11, 1966) was an American sculptor, and president of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors from 1926 to 1928.[1]
Mabel Viola Harris was born in Boothbay, Maine, the daughter of Charles Thomas Harris and Orissa Edna Preble Harris. After graduating from Boothbay Harbor High School,[2] She studied art in Paris,[3] at the Académie Julian, the Académie Vitti, the Académie Carmen, and the Académie Colarossi.[4] Among her instructors were William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Raphaël Collin, Luc-Olivier Merson, and Frederick William MacMonnies.[5] A 1904 portrait of Mabel Conkling by MacMonnies was called "the finest portrait MacMonnies has yet made."[6]
Mabel Harris Conkling's work was included in the 1900 Paris Exposition, the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, the 1908 Baltimore Sculpture Exhibition, at the National Academy of Design,[7] Harrisburg City Hall,[8] and many other shows. She specialized in public sculptures, including fountains, relief panels, trophies, and cemetery urns. She also made portrait busts in bronze, and bas relief medallions. A bas relief bronze portrait of Ethel Barrymore, by Mabel Conkling, is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.[9] A bronze statue by Conkling was presented to theatre professional Samuel Roxy Rothafel in 1931,[10] and a bronze loving cup by Conkling was presented to musician Walter Damrosch in 1933, both presentations by the New York Federation of Women's Clubs.[11]
Conkling was president of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors from 1926 to 1928.[12] She was still on the board when the organization changed its name to the National Association of Women Artists in 1941.[13] Conkling was also president of the Maine Women's Club of New York.[14] [15]
In 1901 Mabel Viola Harris married a fellow artist, David Paul Burleigh Conkling. They had two daughters, Pauline and Natalie. She was widowed in 1926,[16] sold her four-story Greenwich Village residence and studio at 26 West 8th Street in 1940,[17] and died in 1966, aged 94 years, in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.[18]