Memory Sketch of a Circus

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Artist/Maker Patricia Potter (American, 1911 – 1993)

Date1925

MediumWatercolor on paper

DimensionsOverall: 22 9/16 × 28 5/8 in. (57.3 × 72.7 cm) Frame: 25 1/8 × 31 1/4 × 1 1/4 in. (63.8 × 79.4 × 3.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Edward W. Root, W1905, P1944, H1952; Transferred from the Student Loan Collection

Object number1983.21

On view

DescriptionPatricia Potter created Memory Sketch of a Circus as a fourteen-year-old pupil at Mary C. Wheeler’s Private School in Providence, Rhode Island, for inclusion in a 1925 national exhibition held by the Boston chapter of the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, an organization that sought to track and develop unconventional careers for women. The exhibition was held in response to a 1924 study in Vienna by Professor Franz Cizek, a painter and art reformer, on the effects of art education for children who did not wish to pursue art professionally as adults. The study emphasized expression, imagination, and observation as valuable outcomes of art-making, regardless of the child’s future career path. Participants were encouraged to utilize their five senses to make artwork in reply to prompts from their instructors. Memory Sketch of a Circus is Potter’s response to being asked to draw a scene from memory, a task that was also given to children in the Viennese study. Another prompt consisted of sniffing a piece of toast with closed eyes and creating a drawing informed by this experience. The study instructed participants to equate “nature and life with line and color,” which may explain the direct, representational quality of Potter’s work. The painting was acquired by local modern art collector Edward Wales Root, who likely found the work appealing due to its experimental origins in American art reform, and it was later given to the College by his wife.

Collections

Additional Details

Exhibition History 2024-2025
Clinton, NY. The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College. "Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum," September 7, 2024 –June 8, 2025 (no cat.).

1925
Boston, MA. "Children's Drawings, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls, Women's Educational and Industrial Union," July 8 - August 22, 1925.

Provenance May 1983: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), , by transfer from the Student Loan Collection;
1960 - 1983: Hamilton College (Student Loan Collection), by gift of Grace Root;
c. 1957 - 1960: Grace Root, by inheritance or gift from her late husband Edward W. Root.

Published References "Art for the Average Child," The Independent, vol. 115, no. 3927, September 5, 1925, pp. 267-270, illus. 270.

Signature Recto, lower right (pencil): "Patricia Potter."

Inscribed Recto, lower left (pencil): "Memory Sketch of Circus"