Nancy Cox-McCormack

Nancy Cox-McCormack, later Cushman (August 15, 1885 – February 17, 1967), was an American sculptor, writer and socialite. Between 1910 and 1953 she sculpted bronze and terra cotta busts and bas reliefs of more than seventy sitters, including such notables as social reformer Jane Addams, lawyer Clarence Darrow, poet Ezra Pound, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera and Indian politician Mohandas K. Gandhi. Of the works she is known to have created, the location of only half is currently known. Cox was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 15, 1885, the second of three children of Herschel McCullough Cox and Nancy Morgan Cox, a well-off Virginia couple. Nancy and her siblings contracted polio when Nancy was about three, and her sister and brother died of the disease in May 1888. Nancy's mother died of tuberculosis on December 13, 1888.

Career

Chicago In 1910, Cox-McCormack moved to Chicago, and enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, She also created altar panels of "The Annunciation" and "The Birth of Christ" for Trinity Episcopal Church in Chicago. She created a number of portrait sculptures during this period, including George and Frederick Woodruff of the First National Bank, and at least one death mask.

Europe During the 1920s, Cox-McCormack traveled extensively in Europe. She visited France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and England, and established studios at Via Margutta 48 in Rome, Italy (1922–1924). She sculpted figures of a number of important people including Benito Mussolini, U. S. Ambassador Henry P. Fletcher, archaeologist Giacomo Boni, and political saloniste Lydia Rismondo. She considered him "a creative force" and "the inspiration of the new epoch in Europe". She completed his bust in ten sittings during May and June 1923. It was the first bust made of the new ruler. (Years later, she became disenchanted with Mussolini's regime).

Legacy Her work received little critical attention during her lifetime or since, but local newspapers covered her work and travels extensively.

Personal life

Unhappy in her home life, Cox-McCormack married Mark McCormack in 1903, but separated from him in 1909 and divorced as of 1911.

Cox-McCormack married Charles Thomas Cushman of Brooklyn Heights, New York City on December 21, 1939. The couple settled at 62 Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights, New York City. In the 1950s, they returned to Europe together, visiting Sicily, Rome and Florence. In December 1955, they moved to Ithaca, New York. The pair traveled extensively until his death in 1962. Her last work was her husband's tombstone.

Death Nancy Cox-McCormack died in Ithaca, New York on February 17, 1967.

Gallery