Edith Maryon

{{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name =  | image = Edith Maryon.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = {{circa|1920}} | birth_name = Louisa Edith Church Maryon | birth_date = 9 February 1872 | birth_place = London, England | death_date = 2 May 1924 (aged 52) | death_place = Dornach, Switzerland | nationality =  | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = | notable_works = ''The Dance of Anitra''; ''In Memory of Theo Faiss'' | style = Sculptor | movement = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = Herbert Maryon (brother) | family = | awards =  | signature = | signature_type = | signature_size = | signature_alt = | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | module = }}

[[File:Dance of Anitra by Edith Maryon - Dreweatts 1.jpg|thumb|alt=Colour photograph of Edith Maryon's sculpture The Dance of Anitra|''The Dance of Anitra'']]

'''Louisa Edith Church Maryon''' (9 February 1872 – 2 May 1924) was an English sculptor. Along with Ita Wegman, she belonged to the innermost circle of founders of anthroposophy and those around Rudolf Steiner.<ref name=G.Maryon/>

== Life and work == {{see also|Works of Edith Maryon}} Edith Maryon was the second of six children. Her parents were John Maryon Simeon and his wife Louisa Church who lived in London where she grew up. She attended a girls school and later went to a boarding school in the Swiss city of Geneva. During the 1890s she studied sculpture in London at the Central School of Design, and from 1896 at the Royal College of Arts. One of her professors there, Édouard Lantéri, termed Maryon and fellow student Benjamin Clemens his best students.<ref name=HHP.19011213/> She exhibited at the Royal Academy. Her works of that period showed her leaning toward the subject of Christianity, such as a model of Michael, the relief ''The Seeker of Divine Wisdom'' and ''The Cross of Golgotha''.{{sfn|von Halle|Wilkes|2010}}

Maryon met Rudolf Steiner in 1912 or 1913, and after the summer of 1914 she moved to Dornach. She worked with Steiner on the construction of the first Goetheanum, and with him on the modelling and carving of the wooden sculpture ''The Representative of Humanity''. Steiner designed the nine-metre high sculpture to be placed in the first Goetheanum. Now on permanent display at the second Goetheanum, it shows a central, free-standing Christ holding a balance between the beings of Lucifer and Ahriman, representing opposing tendencies of expansion and contraction.<ref>''The Representative of Humanity Between Lucifer and Ahriman, The Wooden Model at the Goetheanum'', Judith von Halle, John Wilkes (2010) {{ISBN|978-1-85584-239-7}} from the German ''Die Holzplastik des Goetheanum'' (2008)[http://www.rudolfsteinerpress.com/pages/viewbook.php?isbn_in=9781855842397] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502235547/http://www.rudolfsteinerpress.com/pages/viewbook.php?isbn_in=9781855842397 |date=2 May 2014 }}</ref><ref>Rudolf Steiner ''Christ in Relation to Lucifer and Ahriman'', lecture May 1915 [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19150518p01.html]</ref> The sculpture was intended to present, in contrast to Michelangelo's Last Judgment, Christ as mute and impersonal such that the beings that approach him must judge themselves.{{sfn|Steiner|1980|pp=294–295}}{{sfn|Steiner|2023|p=253}}

At a foundation meeting held during Christmas 1923 Steiner nominated Maryon as leader of the Section for the Plastic Arts at the Goetheanum<ref>Rudolf Steiner, ''Constitution of the School of Spiritual Science: Its arrangement in Sections'' 1964, republished 2013, p. 22. {{ISBN|978-1-85584-382-0}}</ref> (or Sculptural Arts)<ref>Record of Foundation meeting 1923, session of 28 December 10 a.m. {{ISBN|978-0-88010-193-6}} [http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA260/English/AP1990/19231228a01.html]</ref> (German ''Sektion für Bildende Künste'').<ref>Currently known as "fine arts" or "visual arts": Bildende,[https://www.goetheanum.org/Sektion-fuer-Bildende-Kuenste.393.0.html?&L=0.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427044631/https://www.goetheanum.org/Sektion-fuer-Bildende-Kuenste.393.0.html?&L=0. |date=27 April 2014 }} fine,[https://www.goetheanum.org/Startpage.45.0.html?&L=1.&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=3429&cHash=fb3bd9a242602fa9ec1aded9ac54bdad]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} visual [https://www.goetheanum.org/Art-Section.393.0.html?&L=1.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140427034513/https://www.goetheanum.org/Art-Section.393.0.html?&L=1. |date=27 April 2014 }}</ref> The following May, she died of tuberculosis.

== References == <references>

<ref name=HHP.19011213>{{cite news | title = Camden School of Art and Science | newspaper = The Holloway & Hornsey Press | location = Holloway, London | department = Social and Otherwise | page = 5 | issue = 1507 | date = 13 December 1901 | url = https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004602/19011213/076/0005 | url-access = subscription }}</ref>

<ref name=G.Maryon>{{cite web | title = Weckruf an unsere Zeit. Edith Maryon | date = 24 July 2019 | website = Goetheanum | publisher = Anthroposophical Society | url = https://goetheanum.ch/de/veranstaltungen/edith-maryon | access-date = 3 April 2026 | archive-date = 3 April 2026 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20260403205626/https://goetheanum.ch/de/veranstaltungen/edith-maryon | url-status = live }}</ref>

</references>

== Bibliography == * {{cite encyclopedia | last = Spielmann | first = Marion H. | author-link = Marion Spielmann | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | edition = 11th | entry = Modern British Sculpture | pages = 501–508 | date = 1911 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge | volume = XXIV | entry-url = https://archive.org/details/Encyclopaediabri24chisrich_201303/page/n531 }} * {{cite book | last = Steiner | first = Rudolf | author-link = Rudolf Steiner | editor1-last = Groddeck | editor1-first = Wolfram | title = Das Geheimnis des Todes: Wesen und Bedeutung Mitteleuropas und die europäischen Volksgeister | language = de | trans-title = The Mystery of Death: The Nature and Significance of Central Europe and the European Folk-Spirits | edition = 2nd | series = Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe | volume = 159/160 | date = 1980 | publisher = Rudolf Steiner Verlag | location = Dornach | isbn = 978-3-7274-1590-6 | url = https://archive.org/details/rudolf-steiner-ga-159 | name-list-style = amp }} :* Translated into English as {{cite book | last = Steiner | first = Rudolf | author-link = Rudolf Steiner | editor-last = Dietler | editor-first = Urs | translator-last = Blaxland de-Lange | translator-first = Simon | title = The Mystery of Death: The Nature and Significance of Central Europe and the European Folk-Spirits | series = Collected Works of Rudolf Steiner | volume = 159 | date = 2023 | publisher = Rudolf Steiner Press | location = London | isbn = 978-1-85584-608-1 }} :* Published online in part with translations as {{cite web | ref = none | title = The Mystery of Death: GA 159 | website = Rudolf Steiner Archive | publisher = Steiner Online Library | url = https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA159 | access-date = 30 September 2025 }} {{free access}} * {{cite book | last1 = von Halle | first1 = Judith | last2 = Wilkes | first2 = John | translator1-last = Wehrle | translator1-first = Pauline | translator2-last = Wilkes | translator2-first = John | title = The Representative of Humanity: Between Lucifer and Ahriman | date = 2010 | publisher = Sophia Blade | location = Forest Row, East Sussex | isbn = 978-1-85584-239-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/representativeof0000hall | url-access = registration | name-list-style = amp }} {{free access}}

== Further reading == * {{cite book | last = Biemond | first = Rembert | editor-last = von Plato | editor-first = Bodo | title = Anthroposophie im 20. Jahrhundert: Ein Kulturimpuls in Biografischen Porträts | language = de | trans-title = Anthroposophy in the 20th Century: A Cultural Impulse in Biographical Portraits | date = 2003 | publisher = Verlag am Goetheanum | location = Dornach| pages = | chapter = Edith Maryon | isbn = 978-3-7235-1199-2 }} * {{cite web | last1 = Biemond | first1 = Rembert | last2 = Schnetzler | first2 = Barbara | title = Conversation – Edith Maryon | date = 10 May 2024 | website = Das Goetheanum | publisher = Goetheanum | url = https://dasgoetheanum.com/en/edith-maryon/ | access-date = 26 August 2025 | archive-date = 27 August 2025 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250827025324/https://dasgoetheanum.com/en/edith-maryon/ | url-status = live | name-list-style = amp }} {{free access}} * {{cite book | editor1-last = Freeman | editor1-first = Arnold | editor1-link = Arnold Freeman | editor2-last = Waterman | editor2-first = Charles | title = Rudolf Steiner: Reflections by Some of his Pupils | date = 1958 | publisher = The Golden Blade | url = https://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/GoldenBlade_1958.pdf | name-list-style = amp }} {{free access}} * {{cite journal | last = Kessler | first = Miriam | date = 2019–2020 | title = Edith Maryon: Eine Bildhauerin an der Seite Rudolf Steiners | language = de | trans-title = Edith Maryon: A sculptor at Rudolf Steiner's side | journal = Hinweis | pages = 5–12 | url = https://www.hinweis-hamburg.de/wp-content/uploads/hinweis-Dezenmber-f%C3%BCrs-Netz.pdf }} * {{cite book | last = Raab | first = Rex | title = Edith Maryon: Bildhauerin und Mitarbeiterin Rudolf Steiners | language = de | trans-title = Edith Maryon: Sculptor and collaborator of Rudolf Steiner | series = Pioniere der Anthroposophie | volume = XI | date = 1993 | publisher = Philosophisch-Anthroposophischer Verlag am Goetheanum | location = Dornach | isbn = 978-3-7235-0648-6 }} * {{cite book | last = Selg | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Selg | title = Rudolf Steiners Toten-Gedenken | language = de | trans-title = Rudolf Steiner's Commemoration of the Dead | date = 2008 | publisher = Verlag des Ita Wegman Instituts | location = Arlesheim | isbn = 978-3-9523425-2-7 }} :* Translated into English as {{cite book | last = Selg | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Selg | translator-last = Barton | translator-first = Matthew | title = Edith Maryon: Rudolf Steiner and the Sculpture of Christ in Dornach | date = 2022 | publisher = Temple Lodge Publishing | location = Forest Row | isbn = 978-1-912230-95-2 }} * {{cite book | last1 = Steiner | first1 = Rudolf | author1-link = Rudolf Steiner | last2 = Maryon | first2 = Edith | title = Rudolf Steiner / Edith Maryon: Briefwechsel. Briefe – Sprüche – Skizzen: 1912 – 1924 | series = Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe | volume = 263 | date = 1990 | publisher = Rudolf Steiner Verlag | location = Dornach | isbn = 978-3-7274-2631-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/rudolf-steiner-ga-263a | name-list-style = amp }} {{free access}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Edith Maryon}} * {{Art UK bio}} * [http://d-nb.info/gnd/119006219 Literature by and about Edith Maryon] in the catalog of the German National Library * [https://web.archive.org/web/20090309034936/http://www.maryon.ch/projects/index.php Edith Maryon Foundation]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maryon, Edith}} Category:1872 births Category:1924 deaths Category:19th-century English sculptors Category:19th-century English women artists Category:20th-century English sculptors Category:20th-century English women artists Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art Category:Anthroposophists Category:Associates of the Royal College of Art Category:English women sculptors Category:Sculptors from London