Prophet, Elizabeth (1890–1960)

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Prophet, Elizabeth (1890–1960)

African-American sculptor. Born Nancy Elizabeth Prophet on March 19, 1890, in Warwick, Rhode Island; died in December 1960, in Providence, Rhode Island; second of four children of William H. Prophet (a laborer) and Rosa E. (Walker) Prophet; graduated from Rhode Island School of Design, in 1918; married Francis Ford (a university student), on January 30, 1915 (legally separated, June 1932); no children.

If ever a woman suffered for her art, it was African-American sculptor Elizabeth Prophet, who actually endured periods of starvation during her career. "I am a fighter, determined and non-retreating," she once declared in her diary. "I only stop when I drop." Prophet enjoyed brief periods of success during the late 1920s and early 1930s, but struggled on and off with poverty throughout her life. For ten years beginning in 1934, she held a teaching position at Spelman College in Atlanta, after which time she returned to Rhode Island, where she worked as a domestic in the years preceding her death in 1960. Unfortunately, less than 10 of Prophet's sculptures are presently accounted for in collections; the rest have disappeared, their existence verified only through archival photographs and publications.

Prophet was born in Warwick, Rhode Island, in 1890, the second of four children of Rosa Walker Prophet , an African-American, and William H. Prophet, who was both African-American and Native American. Little is known of Elizabeth's early life and schooling, although one source reports that her childhood interest in art was not encouraged by her parents, who thought it frivolous. In 1914, at age 24, she entered the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, probably paying her tuition with money she earned as a housekeeper. At art school, where she was known as a hard worker but somewhat of a loner, she studied sculpture but focused mainly on painting and drawing. In 1915, she married Francis Ford, a Brown University student ten years her senior. It was an unhappy union.

Following her graduation from art school in 1918, Prophet tried to make a living through portraiture but was unsuccessful. In attempting to get her work exhibited, she also fell victim to the prejudice of the time; one gallery agreed to show her work, but requested that she not attend the opening. Discouraged on many levels, in 1922 Prophet sailed for Paris, leaving her husband behind.

Prophet spent what little money she had outfitting a studio in Montparnasse and embarked on creating her first sculpture abroad. "I remember how sure I was that it was going to be a living thing, a master stroke, how my arms felt as I swung them up to put on a piece of clay," she wrote in her diary. "I was conscious of a great rhythm as they swung through the air, they seemed so long and powerful." Before the piece was completed, however, Prophet was unable to pay her rent and was so hungry that at one point she stole a piece of meat and a potato from a dog's food bowl. Forced to move at least four times within the next two years, she nonetheless kept to a rigorous work schedule, completing two busts in 1923, one of which was included in the "Salon d'Automne" the following year. In 1924, she supported herself by selling batik, until a sympathetic patron gave her 2,000 francs. Prophet used the windfall to begin her first life-size statue, Volonté (will or wish). She would later destroy the piece, feeling it was not progressing as quickly as she thought it should. Prophet continued to battle poverty and periods of hunger, reaching a low point in the summer of 1925, when she was admitted to the American Hospital in Paris for malnutrition. The doctors, thinking she was an addict because of her emaciated condition, warned her to stay away from drugs. After recuperating for three weeks, she returned to her work.

Prophet's sculptures mirrored her life at the time; even the names of some of her works—Discontent, Bitter Laughter, Poverty, and Silence—reveal much about her state of mind. Theresa Leininger , in Notable Black American Women, notes that in style Prophet identified with the predominant sensibility of French sculpture of the period. "Like the work of Antoine Bourdelle, student of Auguste Rodin, her figures and busts had an androgynous quality with their close-cropped or covered hair, heavy-lidded eyes, enigmatic smiles, and small breasts. A series of her masks in plaster and clay from this period also recalls ancient Etruscan statues with their broad, calm foreheads and archaic smiles." Prophet worked mostly in marble and wood, although she also used bronze, alabaster, granite, terra-cotta, plaster, and clay. She preferred to work from live models but seldom had the money to pay for sitters; instead, she relied on her imagination. The artist took pains to document most of her works, having each piece photographed in black and white. In most cases, those images are all that remain of her sculptures.

Prophet was further sidetracked in 1926 by the unexpected arrival of her husband, who appeared at her studio drunk and bearing roses. Though intent on ending the relationship, Prophet stuck it out it until 1929, when she sent Jones back to America with a ticket she purchased with money from the sale of a sculpture. She made the separation official in 1932, changing her name legally from Ford back to Prophet.

During the late 1920s, Prophet exhibited work in several shows and received some help with living expenses from the Students Fund of Boston. She also received the patronage of W.E.B. Du Bois, who hosted her during a year-long visit to the United States in 1929 to promote her art. Despite a warm reception in American art circles, and several impressive exhibitions, Prophet was ambivalent about her success. "What is dear Paris doing these days?," she wrote to her friend Countee Cullen. "I long to be there in the solitude of my own studio. I do not like being famous, Cullen."

Back in Paris in the early 1930s, Prophet enjoyed the patronage of Edouard and Julia Champion , who not only paid her rent but frequently had her to dinner. It was a productive period for the artist, who exhibited two works, Violence and Buste ébène, at the Société des Artistes Française. She returned to the United States for ten months in 1932, at which time the Whitney Museum in New York purchased her best-known work, Congolaise (c. 1930), the cherry wood head of a Masai warrior. By 1934, however, she was in a downward descent again, in debt and living on tea and marmalade. After a particularly grim year, she accepted a position at Spelman College in Atlanta.

Looking forward to the opportunity to share her knowledge, Prophet was initially satisfied with her arrangement at Spelman. In addition to teaching courses in clay modeling and the history of art and architecture, she continued to exhibit, at the Whitney Sculpture Biennials of 1935 and 1937 and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Sculpture International of 1940. As time went on, however, Prophet grew frustrated over the cynical attitude of some of her students and the lack of essential teaching equipment at her disposal. She eventually began to resent the demands on her time and the fact that her studio was a makeshift affair in the school's power plant. "Prophet gradually withdrew from social life," writes Leininger. "While still appearing elegantly attired for dinner (often in a dramatic black cape and felt hat), she became increasingly eccentric and was said to speak in whispers, carry around a live rooster, and cover her sculptures with damp cloths so that no one could see them." In 1944, feeling she had fulfilled her duty to society, she left Spelman and returned to Providence.

Little is known about the last two decades of Prophet's life except that she worked for a ceramics factory in Rhode Island for some time and also held various positions as a live-in domestic. Following her death in December 1960, a man for whom she had worked as a housekeeper paid for her funeral and burial, keeping the sculptor from a pauper's grave.