{{short description|American designer and maker of jewelry and metalwork (1879–1972)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Marie Zimmermann | birth_date = {{birth date|1879|07|17}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1972|06|17|1879|07|17}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York City, US | death_place = Punta Gorda, Florida, US | education = Packer Collegiate Institute<br>Art Students League of New York<br>Pratt Institute | known_for = Designer and maker of jewelry and metalwork | image = American artist Marie Zimmermann (1879–1972) in 1914.jpg | caption = Zimmermann in her studio in 1914 }} {{about|the designer|for the soprano|Marie Kunkel Zimmerman}} '''Marie Zimmermann''' (June 17, 1879 – June 17, 1972) was an American designer and maker of jewelry and metalwork.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|author=The Ganoksin Project |url=http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/marie-zimmermann.htm |title=[Ganoksin] Marie Zimmermann - From Tiaras to Tombstones |publisher=Ganoksin.com |date= |accessdate=2012-05-03}}</ref> She is noted for fine craftsmanship and innovative design in a variety of different mediums and styles. Calling herself "a craftsman" rather than an artist, she employed a range of crafts in her work, including metalsmithing, carving, painting, and sculpting. A 1926 article in the ''Brooklyn Eagle'' by Harriette Ashbrook called her "perhaps the most versatile artist in the country".<ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Ashbrooke |first=Harriette |date=6 June 1926 |title=Woman Master of a Dozen Crafts |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |url=https://bklyn.newspapers.com/image/57480446 |access-date=5 March 2017}}</ref>
==Early life and education== Zimmermann was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1879, the fourth of five children to well-off Swiss immigrants John and Marie Zimmermann.{{Sfn|Waters|Cunningham|Barnes|2011|p=20}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Friends of Marie Zimmermann |url=https://www.friendsofmariezimmermann.org/life.html |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=Friends of Marie Zimmermann}}</ref> Her family purchased a farm in 1882 along the Delaware River near Milford, Pennsylvania, to serve as a weekend and summer home. The family farm strongly influenced Zimmermann's creativity.<ref name=":2" /> Against her father's desire for her to go into medicine, she pursued a career in the decorative arts and worked toward mastery of metalworking.<ref name="unladylike.co">{{Cite web|url=https://unladylike.co/blog/2017/7/22/never-heard-of-her-marie-zimmerman|title=Never Heard of Her: Marie Zimmerman|website=Unladylike|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-09}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> She was educated at the Packer Collegiate Institute, the Art Students League of New York, and the Pratt Institute.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://tworedroses.com/newsletters/newsletter06012018.html|title=Innovative, Versatile, Independent: The Multi-Talented Craftsmanship of Marie Zimmermann {{!}} Two Red Roses Foundation|website=tworedroses.com|access-date=2020-02-13}}</ref>
== Career == Over 25 years, Zimmermann worked ten to twelve hours a day to master all of the different crafts she wanted to use in her art.<ref name=":1" /><ref name="unladylike.co" /> The earliest record of her employed work is the annual arts and crafts exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago from December 16, 1902, to January 10, 1903.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ganoksin.com/article/marie-zimmermann-from-tiaras-to-tombstones/|title=The Work of Marie Zimmermann - Ganoksin Jewelry Making Community|website=Ganoksin|language=en|access-date=2020-02-13}}</ref> By 1910, Zimmerman had commissions from around the country and opened her own studio in the National Arts Club in New York.<ref name=":2" /> She lived in New York and ran her studio at the National Arts Club from about 1910 to 1937.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2693B/lots/475|title=Rare Gold, Baroque Pearl, Emerald, and Pink Sapphire Ring, Marie Zimmermann {{!}} Sale Number 2693B, Lot Number 475 {{!}} Skinner Auctioneers|website=www.skinnerinc.com|access-date=2020-02-13}}</ref> At the age of 33, she designed a large family vacation home in Pike County that shows the rustic elegance of the Arts and Crafts movement and is now a historic site.<ref name=":3" />
Inspiring by Cellini and Michelangelo to master a wide range of media and techniques, Zimmermann designed metalwork in a wide range of media (gold, silver, bronze, copper, and iron), vessels, daggers and irons, light fixtures, stained-glass windows, garden gates, furniture, and jewelry. Much of her eclectic work was inspired by diverse historical precedents, including ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Chinese forms. She experimented freely with materials, surface, color, and applied ornament.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kahn|first=Eve M.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/arts/design/new-study-of-marie-zimmermann-metalsmith.html|title=Arts and Crafts Pioneer Is Subject of New Book|date=2011-11-17|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-02-13|language=en-US}}</ref>
Many of Zimmermann's pieces were both useful and decorative—one example, a candlestick with an electric light in the back, combined elegance with utility. The electric light would provide enough illumination for people to see, and the candles would provide atmosphere.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/housegarden41greeuoft#page/n143/mode/2up|title=An American Worker in the Crafts|last=Edgerton|first=Giles|date=February 1922|work=House & Garden|pages=28–29+79}}</ref> Zimmermann used many of her own pieces in her own home and therefore knew the work from the client/user's perspective as well as the maker/designer's.<ref name=":0" /> She hired and trained six assistants to help execute her designs.<ref name=":1" />
== Later life == Zimmermann closed her studio at the National Arts Club in 1937 and retired in 1940. Her whole family had died during a span of five years. The government was also urging her to do better bookkeeping, especially regarding the valuable materials she was using.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://friendsofmariezimmermann.org/life.html|title=Life and Influence|website=friendsofmariezimmermann.org|access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref> She eventually left New York City to settle on the family farm.<ref name=":4" />
Zimmermann was an avid fisher and hunter, and lived for over forty years with her life partner Ruth Allen (1884–1969), a former actress and screenwriter.{{Sfn|Waters|Cunningham|Barnes|2011|pp=2-3, 117}}
In 1969, Zimmermann moved to Punta Gorda, Florida. She died in Florida on her 93rd birthday in 1972.<ref name=":3" />{{Sfn|Waters|Cunningham|Barnes|2011|p=174}} Her ashes were scattered on the family farm.<ref name=":4" />
== Style == Zimmermann created in many different styles, and her work spanned multiple artistic movements.<ref name=":0" /> Her works were created within the diverse movements that were common in the United States during her lifetime. Her life in central New York exposed Zimmermann to the latest stylistic influences and her artistic curiosity. Examples of the Belle Époque, the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, Greek and Egyptian Revival, Art Deco, and Modernism can be found in her works. To draw inspiration from around the world, she built an extensive personal library.<ref name=":3" />
==Awards== Zimmermann won the Logan Prize for Jewelry and Silverware from an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924.<ref name=":0" />
== Legacy == After her retirement, Zimmermann lost some of her public recognition. In the 1980s, her nephew decided to continue her legacy by placing her art in various museums.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://friendsofmariezimmermann.org/career.html|title=Career and Works|website=friendsofmariezimmermann.org|access-date=2017-03-11}}</ref>
Works by Marie Zimmermann were collected by the Columbus Museum (the Persian Box, in silver and ivory with applied lapis lazuli, pearls, jade and malachite), the Art Institute of Chicago,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marie Zimmermann |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/61137/marie-zimmermann |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=The Art Institute of Chicago |year=1878 |language=en}}</ref> Carnegie Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Marie Zimmermann {{!}} LACMA Collections |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/163445 |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=collections.lacma.org}}</ref> Metropolitan Museum of Art,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Box ca. 1910-1920 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/19037 |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=www.metmuseum.org}}</ref> Minneapolis Institute of Art,<ref>Marie Zimmermann (c. 1910). "Centerpiece bowl". Minneapolis Institute of Art. Retrieved 01 Mar 2019.</ref> Museum of Fine Arts in Boston<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-06 |title=Pair of bangles |url=https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pair-of-bangles-596708 |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |language=en}}</ref> and Wolfsonian-FIU.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Art Deco Sterling Silver Box by Marie Zimmermann |url=http://www.qantiquesanddesign.com/Marie-Zimmermann-American-Art-Deco-Sterling-Silver-Covered-Box |access-date=2019-03-09 |website=Q ANTIQUES AND DESIGN}}</ref> Her papers are held at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Marie Zimmermann papers |url=http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/HTML_Finding_Aids/COL0804.htm |access-date=2022-10-09 |website=Winterthur Library}}</ref>
The Marie Zimmermann Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|version=2010a}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
===Works cited=== *{{cite book |last1=Waters |first1=Deborah Dependahl |last2=Cunningham |first2=Joseph |last3=Barnes |first3=Bruce |title=The Jewelry and Metalwork of Marie Zimmermann |date=2011 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |isbn=9780300181142}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimmermann, Marie}} Category:1879 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Artists from Brooklyn Category:20th-century American women artists Category:20th-century American artists Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Pratt Institute alumni Category:American women jewellers Category:Metalworkers Category:American jewelry designers