Hildegarde Lasell Watson

Hildegarde Lasell Watson (December 28, 1888 – September 26, 1976) was an American actress, singer, writer and arts patron.

Hildegarde Lasell Watson
A black-and-white passport photograph, depicting a white woman wearing a large black hat, and a dress with a round white collar
Hildegarde Lasell Watson's U.S. passport photo, from 1921
BornDecember 28, 1888
Whitinsville, Massachusetts
DiedSeptember 26, 1976
Rochester, New York
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, writer
SpouseJames Sibley Watson
RelativesEmily Sibley Watson (mother-in-law)

Early life

Hildegarde Lasell was born in Whitinsville, Massachusetts, the daughter of Chester Whitin Lasell and Jessie Maude Keeler Lasell. She went to Florence to study art as a young woman.[1]

Career

Hildegarde Lasell was a concert singer.[2] "Miss Lasell sang with refinement and cultivation," commented a reviewer in 1936, "she is obviously a serious student of the meaning and values of the music she interprets."[3] She appeared in her husband's two short avant-garde films.[4] She played Madeline Usher in the silent horror film The Fall of the House of Usher (1928),[5] and Lot's wife in the Biblical adaptation Lot in Sodom (1933).[6] In the 1950s, she persuaded composer Alec Wilder to write an original soundtrack for the 1928 film.[5]

Watson was vice-president of the Rochester Historical Society, and wrote the history of the society's Woodside mansion in 1962.[1][7] She received a medal from the Rochester Museum and Science Center in 1972, alongside fellow recipients including Robert Jastrow, Roger Tory Peterson, and Yousuf Karsh.[8] Her memoir, The Edge of the Woods: A Memoir (1979), published posthumously.[9][10][11] Some of her correspondence with poet Marianne Moore was also published posthumously.[12]

Personal life and legacy

Hildegarde Lasell married filmmaker, radiologist, and literary editor James Sibley Watson Jr. in 1916.[13] Poet E. E. Cummings was an usher at their wedding.[14] They had two children, Michael (1918–2012), who became a scientist and musician,[15] and Jeanne (1921–1991). Hildegarde Lasell Watson died in 1976, at a hospital in Rochester, New York.[1]

Her widower donated some of her art collection to The College at Brockport, State University College of New York.[16] Objects and photographs related to Watson are in the collections of the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia,[17] the George Eastman Museum,[18] Yale University,[19] the New York Public Library,[20] and other institutions. A painted portrait of Hildegarde Lasell as a girl, from 1902, is in the National Portrait Gallery.[21] A 1925 statue of Watson by Gaston Lachaise is in the collection of the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, which was founded by her mother-in-law, Emily Sibley Watson; the Memorial Art Gallery also maintains the Sibley Watson Digital Archive.[22]

References
  1. "Painter, Actress, and Patron of Art". Democrat and Chronicle. 1976-09-27. p. 14. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Church Women Plan Concert". The Indianapolis News. 1934-11-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Soprano Gives Meritous Recital". Carbondale Free Press. 1936-01-24. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Horak, Jan-Christopher (1995). Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-garde, 1919-1945. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-299-14684-9.
  5. Brewer, Charles E. (2015). "The Rochester Amateurs and The Fall of the House of Usher". The Edgar Allan Poe Review. 16 (1): 44–53. doi:10.5325/edgallpoerev.16.1.0044. ISSN 2150-0428. JSTOR 10.5325/edgallpoerev.16.1.0044. S2CID 193230085.
  6. GMG (2006-03-28). "Lot in Sodom in the Rosenbach". The Rosenbach. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  7. Watson, Hildegarde Lasell; Rochester Historical Society (Rochester, N.Y.) (1962). "Woodside": a brief account of "Woodside" from 1838 to 1962 : and especially the last twenty years. Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester Historical Society. OCLC 3357794.
  8. Plutzik, Robert (1972-03-25). "Museum Says 'Thank you' with Medals". Democrat and Chronicle. pp. 17, 18. Retrieved 2021-06-02.
  9. Watson, Hildegarde Lasell (1979). The edge of the woods: a memoir. OCLC 6544285.
  10. Warner, Jack (1980-06-03). "A Labor of Love About a World Gone By". Democrat and Chronicle. pp. 13, 14. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Hildegarde Watson Memoir Gains New Reader Interest". Democrat and Chronicle. 1982-04-11. p. 39. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Moore, Marianne; Watson, Hildegarde Lasell (1976). Hoy, Cyrus Henry (ed.). Marianne Moore: letters to Hildegarde Watson (1933-1964). OCLC 24340831.
  13. "Wedded at Whitinsville". The Boston Globe. 1916-10-15. p. 10. Retrieved 2021-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Miss Lasell a Bride". The New York Times. October 15, 1916. p. 19 – via ProQuest.
  15. "Michael Watson Obituary". Legacy.com. 2012. Retrieved 2022-04-09.
  16. "The College at Brockport Restores Historic E. E. Cummings Collection". Digital Commons, The College at Brockport: State University of New York. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  17. Person Record: Hildegarde Lassell Watson (d. 1976), The Rosenbach.
  18. Condax, Louis. "[Hildegarde Lasell Watson]". George Eastman House. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  19. Alyse Gregory Papers, Beinecke Library, Yale University.
  20. "James Sibley Watson/The Dial Papers". New York Public Library. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  21. "Hildegarde Lasell". Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
  22. "Sibley Watson Digital Archive". Retrieved 2021-06-01.
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