Gretchen Osgood Warren
LCNAF has her birth year as 1868. Her obituary in 1961 describes her as being 90 years old which puts her birth year at 1871. The MFA, Boston also uses 1871 as her birth year. Casey Riley decided on 1871 as her birth year. Updated by E. Reluga 5/9/2018
Gretchen Osgood Warren (19 March 1868 – September 1961), the wife of Fiske Warren, was an actress, singer and poet. The daughter of Dr. Hamilton Osgood and Margaret Cushing Osgood of Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, her younger sister was Mary Alden Childers, the wife of writer and Irish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers. Her nephew Erskine Hamilton Childers served as the fourth President of Ireland from 1973-74.
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Early life[edit]
She could sing perfectly in pitch, write like an adult and recite poetry on command.[1] Her upbringing in the affluent environment that was turn of the century Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts allowed her to pursue music and drama to an extremely high level.[2]
Just down the street from the Osgood home was the Boston Athenaeum, where a long line of Osgoods, namely Frances Sargent Osgood and Samuel Stillman Osgood, are all listed on the "Register of the Proprietors" for the institution.[3] Gretchen went on to study at Oxford and graduated with honors.[2]
Artistic muse[edit]
Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel, John Singer Sargent, 1903.
John Singer Sargent, the famed portraitist of Boston's elite, was commissioned by Warren's husband, Fiske Warren to paint her portrait in April 1903.[4] The sitting was done in Fenway Court, then the home of legendary Boston fine arts czar; Isabella Stewart Gardner. Warren is seen seated in a chair with her daughter, Rachel Warren. The painting is often considered to be one of Sargent's prime portraits and usually appears in Sargent Estate calendars and postcards.[5][6][7] Later she was also photographed by portrait photographer Arnold Genthe.[8]
Awards[edit]
Golden Rose Award
Works[edit]
Harriet Monroe, ed. (1916). "The Wild Bird". Poetry. Modern Poetry Association.
"The Pilgrim's Way". Poet lore. Writer's Center. 1915.
Humanity, by Gretchen Osgood Warren, (Basil Blackwell, Oxford) 1953 (A Selection of Poems)
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Private Papers of Robert Erskine Chidlers, Trinity College Library, Cambridge
^ Jump up to: a b "The Mount Vernon Street Warrens" Martin Green, Simon & Schuster, 1989 ISBN 0-684-19109-1, pp. 150-156.
Jump up ^ Register of the Proprietors of the Boston Athenaeum , The Boston Athenaeum, 1898
Jump up ^ Martin Green. "The Mount Vernon Street Warrens", Simon & Schuster, 1989; ISBN 0-684-19109-1, p. 151
Jump up ^ John Singer Sargent's Mrs. Fiske Warren (Gretchen Osgood) and Her Daughter Rachel
Jump up ^ MFA Boston: Collections Search Results
Jump up ^ "The Mount Vernon Street Warrens" Martin Green, Simon & Schuster, 1989 ISBN 0-684-19109-1, pp. 150-156
Jump up ^ Genthe's portraits in the Library of Congress, loc.gov; accessed 18 January 2016.
Sources[edit]
The Mount Vernon Street Warrens, Martin Green, Simon & Schuster, 1989 ISBN 0-684-19109-1
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gretchen_Osgood_Warren I.S. 1/10/2018
