Martha Darwin Thompson ( English Martha Darwin Thompson ; 1903-1964) - American artist, master of portrait dolls , created unique portrait dolls from porcelain from 1942 to 1964. Her first dolls were carved from soap, but later she mastered a sponge cake (burnt, but not glazed porcelain). An innovator among American artists in the field of dolls. [one]
Martha Darwin Thompson was born in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1903, she was the eldest of three children in the family. Her father, James Lanier Darwin, was a surgeon and a doctor. Her mother, Martha Lee Patterson, was an artist and pianist. From childhood, Marta watched the work of her mother artist. At an early age, she was fond of watercolors, painted children's portraits in pastel, sculpted from clay. After high school in Huntsville, she attended Howard Seminary in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. She attended the Information School of Design, Massachusetts School of the Arts. She married W. Murray Thompson in 1929, and they had two children. [2]
In 1928, Marta began making her first dolls, carving them from soap. Later, she became interested in porcelain and began making porcelain portrait dolls .
She was a member of the charter of the National Institute of American Puppeteers (NIADA) [3] and sought to achieve recognition of this type of fine art as handmade dolls. She created all her dolls using her own porcelain molds. Among her works are portrait dolls of President Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth II, Grace Kelly, Prince of Monaco Rainier, Prince Charles, Princess Anne. For historical figures, Martha Thompson modeled the faces of dolls based on famous paintings or engravings. Martha Thomson's famous dolls are kept in private collections and rarely appear on the secondary market. [four]