Renée Prahar (c. 1879 — August 17, 1962) also known as Irene Prahar, was an American sculptor and actress based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and later in Connecticut.

Early life

Irene Prahar was born in New York, of Bohemian ancestry. She studied sculpture in Paris at the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...

, working with Auguste Rodin and

Antoine Bourdelle Antoine Bourdelle (30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important ...

. While in Paris, she showed work at the Salon of the Société National des Beaux-Arts in 1911 and again in 1914.

Career

Prahar began working as a stage actress, in the company of actor

Richard Mansfield Richard Mansfield (24 May 1857 – 30 August 1907) was an English actor-manager best known for his performances in Shakespeare plays, Gilbert and Sullivan operas, and the play ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887 play), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''. ...

. She appeared with Mansfield in '' Old Heidelberg'' (1903-1904), ''

The Death of Ivan the Terrible ''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'' (russian: Смерть Иоанна Грозного, translit=Smertʹ Ioanna Groznogo) is a historical drama by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy written in 1863 and first published in the January 1866 issue of ''O ...

'' (1905), ''

The Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as ...

'' (1906), ''

The Scarlet Letter ''The Scarlet Letter: A Romance'' is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne, w ...

'' (1906), and ''

Peer Gynt ''Peer Gynt'' (, ) is a five-act (drama), act play (theatre), play in verse (poetry), verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen published in 1876. Written in Norwegian language, Norwegian, it is one of the most widely performed Norwegian pla ...

'' (1906). As a sculptor, Prahar created portrait busts and human or animal figures, usually angular and stylized, in a method she called "Triangularism". In 1922, she was hired to create monkey sculptures and architectural features to adorn the terrace of Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt. Her "Fox Gate Posts" were featured in the 1931 opening of the American Women's Association's permanent gallery in 1931. She also designed a medal for the American Women's Association, given as an award to distinguished women of the New York area. The medal's first recipient in 1931 was

Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth contr ...

. Critic Henry McBride called Prahar "a pioneer in the fantastic and the grotesque." In the same year, the ''New York Times'' critic commented on Prahar's "remarkably cool intellectuality". In 1930 she wrote in protest of fellow sculptor

George Grey Barnard George Grey Barnard (May 24, 1863 – April 24, 1938), often written George Gray Barnard, was an American sculptor who trained in Paris. He is especially noted for his heroic sized ''Struggle of the Two Natures in Man'' at the Metropolitan Museum ...

's eviction from his studio space. Later in her career, she designed and decorated homes in Connecticut, with George's daughter, Colette Barnard."Renee Prahar, 83, Sculptor, is Dead"
''New York Times'' (August 19, 1962): 88.

Personal life

Renee Prahar died in 1962, aged 83 years, in

New London, Connecticut New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States, located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, Connecticut. It was one of the world's three busiest whaling ports for several decades ...

. A small collection of Prahar's papers are in the Smithsonian's

Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

.Renee Prahar Papers, 1912-1938
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prahar, Renee 1870s births 1962 deaths École des Beaux-Arts alumni American actresses Artists from New York City Sculptors from New York (state)