Kentucky Collection

ENID YANDELL
(American, 1870-1934)

Daniel Boone, about 1893
Painted plaster
Gift of Mrs. J. J. Trask 1941.14.1

Louisville native Enid Yandell created this plaster sculpture as a study for a seven-foot-tall statue of Daniel Boone, the great frontiersman who blazed a trail through the Cumberland Gap in the 1770s and opened up Kentucky for settlement. Yandell originally designed the large sculpture for the Kentucky Building at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893; the bronze now stands in Louisville’s Cherokee Park.

The career of Enid Yandell blossomed at a time when American women were gaining greater access to art schools and other opportunities for study traditionally limited to men. Sculpture, because of its monumental scale and the coarse or messy materials used, was frequently considered too difficult and unfeminine for women to pursue. Yandell, however, successfully competed against men for important commissions and earned a national reputation as a sculptor. In addition to creating monuments, such as the one honoring Daniel Boone, Yandell also sculpted portrait busts, decorative plaques, fountains, and intimate relief sculptures.

This plaster model of Boone, along with fourteen other artworks by Yandell, was donated to the museum by the artist’s niece.