Sibyl Anikeef (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Marie Augusta Phillipson; March 29, 1896 – July 27, 1997) was an American photographer. She worked for the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

, and lived variously in New York City, San Diego, Chicago, Carmel by the Sea, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. She is best known for her portrayal of the Monterey Peninsula and portraits of fisherman, still lives, and landscapes. She used various names including Sibyl Brainerd, and Sibyl Brainerd Freed.

Biography

She was born as Marie Augusta Phillipson on March 29, 1896, in Chicago, Illinois, to parents Belle Brainerd from Colorado, and Emil Phillipson (or alternate spelling Phillipsohn) from Germany. In her early childhood she was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Her mother died in 1905, and she and her siblings were raised by her maternal grandparents Wesley and Marie Brainerd in

Lomaland Lomaland was a Theosophical community in Point Loma in San Diego, California, from 1900 to 1942. Theosophical Society leader Katherine Tingley founded it in 1900 as a school, cultural center, and residential facility for her followers. The Am ...

, a theosophical community in

Point Loma Point Loma ( Spanish: ''Punta de la Loma'', meaning "Hill Point"; Kumeyaay: ''Amat Kunyily'', meaning "Black Earth") is a seaside community in San Diego, California, United States. Geographically it is a hilly peninsula that is bordered on the ...

, San Diego, California. The children studied at '' Madame Tingley’s Theosophical Institute''. Their grandparents died in 1908 and 1910, and afterwards she changed her name to "Sibyl Brainerd" to honor them. Their maternal grandmother's brother Lyman Judson Gage moved to Lomaland and took care of the children after their grandparents died. Anikeef was a photographer for the Federal Art Project, and through that experience she met photographer

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was an American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers" and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." Over the course ...

. He later became her lifelong friend, and someone she both models for and served as her model. Photography containing her as a model (by Weston) can be found in the museum collections at

Syracuse University Art Museum Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920. Located in the cit ...

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

, and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

. She died on July 27, 1997, in New York City. Her own photography work can be found in the museum and library collections at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art gallery, art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of A ...

, the library special collections at

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, and the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

Personal life

On October 21, 1921, she married her first husband in New York City, Vasile Anikeef (or alternate spelling Anikeyev) an opera singer from Russia. Together they had one son, Lyman, born in Moscow in 1927. Her second husband was Simon Freed, an atomic scientist, they were married on May 5, 1943, in Chicago.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anikeef, Sibyl 1896 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers Artists from San Diego Federal Art Project artists Photographers from Chicago Photographers from California American people of German descent