Caroline Shawk Brooks
Personal Information
Born: 1840
Died: 1913
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: White
Education
St Louis Normal School 1862
" “I had previously modeled in everything workable, in clay, sea sand, mashed potatoes, putty and so on,” she told the Akron Daily Democrat in 1893. “[But] I began my best work in butter, and with butter I shall end.” (atlasobscura.com); “I am an Arkansas artist, and proud of it. It was on our plantation in Phillips County, just nine miles from Helena, that I made my first nine pounds of butter and modeled it into the figure that gave me fame. And the people there called it—‘The Butterhead!’ Now I like that name, but didn’t then.” (encylcolpediaofarkansas.net); "If you put an artist under a master, he loses," she said. "When I do portrait work, I work until I suit those for whom I am working. When I work for myself I work until I suit myself." (thefreelibrary.com); "
— Caroline Shawk Brooks
Professional Life
Field of Study: Sculpture
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: None found
Awards & Achievements
Awards: 1852 (age 12) won a medal for a sculpture of wax flowers;
Achievements: devised a way to produce lubricated molds in plaster; first known American sculptor working in the medium of butter;
was known as "The Butter Woman" & "Centennial Butter Sculptress"
used common objects like butter-paddles, cedar sticks, broom straws and camel's-hair pencils to create her butter sculptures
1873 created a bas relief portrait she donated to her church to auction off to pay for roof repairs for the church
a man from Memphis saw her 1873 sculpture & commissioned her to do one of Mary Queen of Scots to hang in his business office
1873 read King René's Daughter, a verse drama by Danish poet and playwright Henrik Hertz & became fascinated with the main character (Iolanthe) & subsequently sculpted several figures of Iolanthe with the 1st exhibited at a gallery in Cincinnati in 1874
1876 exhibited several pieces at the World's Fair in Philadelphia & demonstrated her craft by sculpting a piece out of butter in 90 minutes
1877 displayed several of her pieces at Boston's Amory Hall, where she also created Pansy and The Marchioness (the latter was her 1st full-length sculpture)
mid-1860s she was so successful she was finally able to afford purchasing marble & began using it as her sculpture medium
exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts and the Woman's Building at 1893's World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago including a bas-relief of Christopher Columbus in butter, and four marble sculptures
to preserve her delicate butter sculptures she created them in flat metallic milk pans which she set in larger pans filled with ice & she had to continue to supply the outer pans with ice to keep her butter sculptures in good condition for months; due to the fragile nature of her butter sculpture there are no known pieces in existence today
she devised a process to preserve her butter sculptures by pouring plaster over them while still in their milk pans & cutting a hole in the bottom of the pan after the plaster set; the pan was then placed over a container of boiling water to allow the butter to melt & drain out leaving her with a greased plaster negative of her work which she the filled with more plaster resulting in a plaster positive; she received a patent for the process in 1877 (although the patent is noted in numerous articles, no record of the patent was located) but did not use plaster casts to reproduce her butter sculptures because she preferred to sculpt a new one for each exhibit
as a child enjoyed painting & drawing
her father invented the 1st successful steam powered fire engine
used clay from a nearby creek to create her 1st sculpture, a Dante's head
began working in butter in 1867 after the failure of the family farms' cotton crop & needing to find another source of income
worked in butter for 18 months beginning in 1867 then stopped until making a sculpture for her church auction in 1873
one bronze, one drawing and five plaster casts of her art have been donated to the Chicago Historical Society