Untitled (Doll in Blue with Pleated Skirt)1940–195028 1/4 x 9 x 5 "Cast plaster, paint, altered wig, fabricBlanchard-Hill Collection, gift of M. Anne Hill and Edward V. Blanchard, Jr.1998.10.601539102494Morton BartlettSculptureBostonBostonUnited StatesMassachusettsThree Dimensional WorkseMuseum - Collection HighlightsBostonMorton Bartlett attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University but dropped out of college without taking a degree. It is possible that he had to leave college because of the Depression or the deaths of his parents. He worked a variety of jobs, including freelance photography, before establishing himself as a printing designer. A reserved bachelor with few close friendships, Bartlett created a private world inhabited by thirteen meticulously sculpted and costumed plaster boys and girls that he photographed in vignettes. Although he allowed a relative to publish a brief article on his "sweethearts" in Yankee magazine in 1965, the dolls and the photographs remained unknown to the art world until their discovery after the artist's death in 1993. Bartlett had carefully stored the dolls, spare body parts, extra clothes, his photographs, and an archive of drawings in the only locked cabinet in his house.
Bartlett tried to create both physical and psychological verisimilitude in his dolls. He consulted anatomy texts and sewed, knitted, and embroidered the dolls' clothes himself. Untitled (Doll in Blue with Pleated Skirt) captures the budding sexuality of a prepubescent girl. The doll brushes her luxuriant hair off her face provocatively revealing her developing breasts beneath her knit blouse. Physical details—the musculature of her arm, weight balanced on one leg, pink toenails, the darker shade of the skin over the knee—are uncannily exact. Only the doll's haunting expression is ambiguous. Her eyes betray a profound inwardness, perhaps a secret sadness.
Cheryl Rivers, "Doll in Blue Pleated Skirt," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 381Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgNote on dating, material involved, and creative process: "We know Bartlett started making the dolls in 1936 and produced about one a year. By definition, they were completed before they were photographed. So a date of 1940–50 would be more accurate. The reality/perfection of the final photographs was Bartlett's purpose: the dolls were made for that goal, not really as a separate entity. He never made anything extraneous to what would be, for him, the perfect photograph. In the case of this doll (inv.# 1998.10.6), she was always photographed leaning against a doorway (sometimes with a different head, as in "Polynesian girl"). Or in another position where her second arm and hand would not be visible. Additionally, it is more accurate to write "altered wig" than "synthetic hair." We know from Bartlett's letter that doll wigs were one of the few items he actually bought – and then altered if necessary." (Marion Harris, October 2, 2014, to Valerie Rousseau)19401950 1998 10 6 Morton Bartlett attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University but dropped out of college without taking a degree. It is possible that he had to leave college because of the Depression or the deaths of his parents. He worked a variety of jobs, including freelance photography, before establishing himself as a printing designer. A reserved bachelor with few close friendships, Bartlett created a private world inhabited by thirteen meticulously sculpted and costumed plaster boys and girls that he photographed in vignettes. Although he allowed a relative to publish a brief article on his "sweethearts" in Yankee magazine in 1965, the dolls and the photographs remained unknown to the art world until their discovery after the artist's death in 1993. Bartlett had carefully stored the dolls, spare body parts, extra clothes, his photographs, and an archive of drawings in the only locked cabinet in his house.
Bartlett tried to create both physical and psychological verisimilitude in his dolls. He consulted anatomy texts and sewed, knitted, and embroidered the dolls' clothes himself. Untitled (Doll in Blue with Pleated Skirt) captures the budding sexuality of a prepubescent girl. The doll brushes her luxuriant hair off her face provocatively revealing her developing breasts beneath her knit blouse. Physical details—the musculature of her arm, weight balanced on one leg, pink toenails, the darker shade of the skin over the knee—are uncannily exact. Only the doll's haunting expression is ambiguous. Her eyes betray a profound inwardness, perhaps a secret sadness.
Cheryl Rivers, "Doll in Blue Pleated Skirt," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 381Object information is a work in progress and may be updated with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art Museum welcomes additional information. To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orgNote on dating, material involved, and creative process: "We know Bartlett started making the dolls in 1936 and produced about one a year. By definition, they were completed before they were photographed. So a date of 1940–50 would be more accurate. The reality/perfection of the final photographs was Bartlett's purpose: the dolls were made for that goal, not really as a separate entity. He never made anything extraneous to what would be, for him, the perfect photograph. In the case of this doll (inv.# 1998.10.6), she was always photographed leaning against a doorway (sometimes with a different head, as in "Polynesian girl"). Or in another position where her second arm and hand would not be visible. Additionally, it is more accurate to write "altered wig" than "synthetic hair." We know from Bartlett's letter that doll wigs were one of the few items he actually bought – and then altered if necessary." (Marion Harris, October 2, 2014, to Valerie Rousseau)