Vicken von Post Totten

Hedvig Erika ("Vicken") von Post Börjeson Totten (March 12, 1886 – June 21, 1950) was a Swedish ceramicist, sculptor, painter, and illustrator.[1][2][3]

Vicken von Post Totten.

She studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts with Gerhard Henning, known for his pieces produced by the Royal Danish Porcelain Factory.[4] She also studied in Paris.

She illustrated the first edition of Laura Fitinghoff's children's book The Kids from Frostmofjället (1907).[5] She worked for the Rörstrand Porcelain Factory from the summer of 1915 to 1921, where she modelled approximately thirty figurines that were put into production.[1]

She married sculptor Börje Börjeson in 1915, and separated from him in 1920.[2] In 1921, she traveled to the United States to participate in a Washington, D.C. exhibition,[2] met and married architect George Oakley Totten, Jr.[6]

Post Totten opened and operated an art school in Washington D.C. from 1921 to 1941.[7] She had an acclaimed exhibition at The Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1934.[2] She was a member of the National Association of Women Artists.[3]

Notable works include "Symbol of Flight" (1927), a bronze sculpture that was presented by the women of Washington, D.C. to Charles Lindbergh;[2] and eleven limestone bas-relief panels depicting the history of transportation (1932) modeled for the façade of the main post office in Waterbury, Connecticut, a building designed by her husband.[8] Several U.S. post offices contain W.P.A. art by Post Totten. Her plaster of Paris mural, "Pastoral of Spencer," was installed in the Spencer, West Virginia Post Office in 1938.[9][10]

Works by her are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,[11] the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden,[12] and other museums.

References
  1. "Partage Plus, Featured Artists". Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  2. "Vicken von Post 1886-1950 (translated from Swedish to English with Google Translate)". Retrieved 2 November 2014.
  3. Glenn B. Opitz, ed., Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie, NY, 1986, p. 944.
  4. Carl Laurin, Emil Hannover and Jens Thiis, Scandinavian Art, Benjamin Blom, New York, 1968, p. 221.
  5. Barnen ifrån Frostmofjället, from Projekt Runeberg.
  6. "MAJ. G.O. TOTTEN MARRIES: Weds Mrs. Vicken von Post, a Sculptress of Sweden," The New York Times, August 23, 1921, p. 11.
  7. Chris Petteys, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900, G. K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985, p. 703.
  8. Post Office Reliefs, from SIRIS.
  9. http://www.wpamurals.com/spencrwv.htm
  10. Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz, Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art in the New Deal, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1984, p. 323.
  11. The Secret, from Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  12. Vicken von Post, from Nationalmuseum.
  • Leila Mechlin, "Sculpture in Porcelain," The American Magazine of Art, vol. 12, no. 9 (September 1921), pp. 318–19.
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