Enid Yandell

The life and work of a sculptor who pushed both aesthetic and social boundaries at the turn of the twentieth century is explored in this in-depth study.

Working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Louisville-born sculptor Enid Yandell developed a distinctly physical and masculine style that challenged the gender norms of artistic practice. An award-winning sculptor with numerous commissions, she was also an activist for women's suffrage and other political movements. This study examines Yandell's evolution from a young, Southern dilettante into an internationally acclaimed artist and public figure.


Yandell found early success as one of a select group of female sculptors at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. She was then commissioned to create a twenty-five foot figure of Pallas Athena for Nashville's Centennial Exposition in 1897. Yandell's command of classical subject matter was matched by her abilities with large-scale, figurative works such as the Daniel Boone statue in Cherokee Park, Louisville.


Part of the art worlds of New York and Paris, Yandell associated with luminary sculptors like Frederick MacMonnies and Auguste Rodin. She became one of the first female members of the National Sculpture Society in 1898. This authoritative study explores the many ways in which Yandell was a pioneer.