Born in Ogdensburg, New York on November 27, 1869 to a family of pedigree and some wealth, Sarah Welles James was a precocious child fond of horses and the great outdoors. Her uncanny ability to cut out anatomically correct silhouettes of people and animals from an early age provided the only hint of her artistic sensibility. Motherless by the age of seven, Sally moved to New York City with her father, Col. Edward C. James, a noted trial lawyer. After the move, she spent several years traveling the world with him. Sally later recalled that those"days were loaded with opportunities to study, to absorb unconsciously the great things in line and form of every nation. In fact this was my real schooling. I was heading for sculpture then, though I didn't know it."
On December 31, 1898, Sally married George Paulding Farnham, a designer gaining worldwide notoriety for his jewelry and silver designs for Tiffany and Company. Together, they moved to his family's estate, Stepping Stones, in Great Neck, NY and Sally settled comfortably into a busy life as a society matron, raising children, throwing parties and enjoying the good life. By 1901, however, her life would change dramatically. Her beloved father died early that year and later, an undocumented medical condition forced her into a prolonged period of bed rest.
Seeing his wife grow restless and disheartened by her infirmity, Paulding Farnham gave Sally some plasticine hoping to alleviate her depression and boredom. Immediately, Sally began modeling small figures, later noting that it was "as if in some mysterious previous state of existence I had actually been a sculptor and the memory of it was beginning to leak back into my fingers and thumbs." With the support and guidance of her husband and close family friend, Frederic Remington, who would famously call one of her early works " ugly as sin", yet "full of ginger," Sally dove into a career as a serious sculptor at the age of thirty-two.
Farnham's earliest works revolved around fine portrait busts of her society friends. By 1903, she was offered a $5,000 commission to create a fountain for the Baltimore garden of Col. Issac Emerson, founder of Bromo-Seltzer. A year later, a call came out from her hometown of Ogdensburg, NY searching for a sculptor to create a Civil War memorial of some "artistic value." After submitting two designs for consideration, Farnham won the competition and her Spirit of Liberty was to be her most personal and rewarding creation, allowing her to honor the memory of her father, who fought with the many men from St. Lawrence County who died during the Civil War. Spirit of Liberty came to symbolize many of the ideals Sally's father instilled in his youngest daughter, such as honor, love and above all else, pride in country and family. The work was praised for it's "originality," and one critic went so far as to call it "a masterpiece." Following Spirit of Liberty, Sally soon received commissions for two more war memorials in Rochester, NY.
By 1907, Farnham's meteoric rise in the art world peaked early as she earned the respect of critics who acknowledged her as one of the leading female sculptors working on a heroic scale in America. Their confidence in her ability served her well, as commissions continued to come her way. Within the year, she was invited to create a series of large relief panels depicting the discovery, exploration and settlement of the New World. Designed to adorn the new Pan-American building in Washington, D.C., the piece was called the Frieze of the Discoverers, and the finished project earned her international acclaim. The finished panels led to further commissions from South American republics. After the Frieze of the Discovers, the Republic of Bolivia asked her to create a marble bust of Sucre and the Republic of Peru commissioned a similar bust of Unanue to be given for the Pan-American building's Hall of Patriots.
Sadly, the rise of Farnham's career paralleled the disintegration of her marriage. Following several creative disputes with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Paulding Farnham abruptly resigned from Tiffany and Co. in 1908. Paulding spent the next few years working as a sculptor in New York before traveling West on various get-rich-quick prospecting schemes that drained the family finances. In 1914, with three children to support, Sally petitioned for a divorce, which was granted on grounds of desertion a year later. Living up to her personal motto, "to live, to love and in time let go," Sally set out to make the best of the situation.
In 1916, Sally competed against twenty other sculptors to win a highly prized commission from the Venezuelan government to create a heroic monument of Simon Bolivar, the great South American liberator. Despite numerous setbacks and five hard years of work, the monument was a great success when completed. Heralded as the largest bronze ever created by a woman, the monument was dedicated on April 19, 1921 before a crowd of thousands in Central Park. President Warren G. Harding, whose bust Sally would later model, gave the keynote address. Sally later said that the experience was "the greatest day in my life." For her great accomplishment, she was awarded the highest honor bestowed by the Venezuelan government, the Order of the Bust of Bolivar.
The following decade was a busy one for Farnham. Her inner circle read like a who's who of noted personalities of the Twenties. She counted on friends like Alexander Woollcott, Ralph Barton, Neysa McMein, Mary Pickford and Lynn Fontanne. In 1922, Irene Castle saw a work Farnham first exhibited at the 1915 National Academy of Design and asked her to enlarge it in marble for the grave of her husband and dancing partner, Vernon Castle. The work entitled, The End of the Day, is a quiet, yet powerful statement of grief and loss.
Farnham was often applauded for her skill with portraits. She had a keen eye that was able to capture many details that delighted both sitter and critic. Her bust of Marshal Ferdinand Foch would bring her a grateful letter from the military leader exclaiming it to be the best likeness of him ever created.
In 1925, her Father Junipero Serra was dedicated in Los Angeles at the San Fernando Mission. Two years later, Farnham was commissioned to create another war memorial, this time for Fultonville, NY.
By the end of the decade, Farnham returned to modeling a few works inspired by her old mentor, Frederic Remington. Sunfisher, Sratchin' 'Im and Payday are western-themed works that are an obvious homage to the memory of Remington. The art world was drastically changing. Abstraction was emerging as a force to be reckoned with and Farnham, whose work was figurative, grounded in the late Beaux Arts, representative tradition, began to see demand for her work diminish. Despite this, she went on to create such works as Will Rogers, a beautiful character study of the noted humorist. It is everything Farnham sought out in her art. She once said, "I have always felt beauty as well as strength, and loved them. These are important things in sculpture. To mould feeling, strength and wisdom, to see through the outer form and bring to the surface the unconscious joys of life, this is my task."
Sally James Farnham would continue pursuing her craft until her death on April 28, 1943. She is buried in the All Saint's Episcopal Church Cemetery in Great Neck, New York. Her tombstone is inscribed, "A merry heart goes all the day." Farnham was an eternal optimist who entered a world dominated by men and succeeded on her own terms. Not one to create maternal images of children at play with turtles, as some of her female contemporaries had, she liked best "sculptures that are full of force, feeling and emotional expression." She said, "I want to believe the whole heart and soul of the artist is in his work. When he can make others believe that, he is a real artist." Farnham practiced what she preached and infused into her work a certain spark and energy which was respected by admirers and critics alike.
Sourced with gratitude in its entirety from sallyjamesfarnham.org, a wonderful website with much more information and lots of pictures of Sally James Farnham and her works.