{"id":6148,"date":"2019-03-05T11:11:01","date_gmt":"2019-03-05T17:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/?p=6148"},"modified":"2019-03-05T17:36:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-05T23:36:23","slug":"sweetest-of-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/2019\/03\/05\/sweetest-of-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweetest of Monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

PLATE 1.<\/span> The Centaur Escapes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Centaur Escapes <\/span>displays an enraged centaur, half-man and half-horse \u2014 muscular back arched, fists clenched \u2014 against a troubled sky. From whom is he escaping? What cause is there of this angst? O\u2019Neill, wisely, leaves that answer to the viewer \u2014 or, perhaps more personally, simply kept the answer to herself.<\/em><\/p>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Sweetest of Monsters<\/h1>\n

by Joshua Heston
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Form emerging from the formless…. \u201c\u201cThere are some people who have found some of my pictures revolting. They hurt the eye. But I am not dejected \u2014 like Poe. I am in love with magic and monsters and the drama of form emerging from the formless.\u201d \u2014 Rose O\u2019Neill<\/p>\n

Rose O\u2019Neill\u2019s serious work defies opinion, trend, generation. The art is provocative, delicate, emotional, and often risqu\u00e9. It is unflinching.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neill was a gifted illustrator before she developed a now-nearly forgotten doll (the Kewpie) which, in terms of merchandising, was eclipsed only by the work of another Missouri artist (Walt Disney).<\/p>\n

Kewpies were the highest expression of O\u2019Neill\u2019s commercial, illustrative abilities. It was a commercial peak following years of drawing for the greatest magazines of the Western publishing world. Kewpies were not, however, her highest expression of art.<\/p>\n

After a visit with aging French sculptor Auguste Rod\u00een, O\u2019Neill was encouraged \u2014 perhaps demanded \u2014 to bring her private works to light. The Sweet Monster collection was never meant to be seen. \u201cFrom a long practice of hiding what I was most loving to make, I had grown extremely shy. And I must confess I dreaded exposure,\u2019\u201d she wrote. The collection series met great success in a 1921 Paris gallery exhibition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn viewing the powerful drawings of Madame Rose O\u2019Neill one would hardly be surprised to learn that this strange and profound artiste is also a great poet. Her melodious and nostalgic verses are at the same time an emanation of, and a stimulant to, her plastic feeling,\u201d wrote Monsieur Ar\u00e8ne Alexandre.<\/p>\n

New York art-goers were not so kind the next year. American audiences were unprepared for the \u201cMother of the Kewpie\u201d to be so liberated or so capable of drawing sensuous, enigmatic figures. In time, the artwork languished, largely forgotten.<\/p>\n

It has been nearly a century since the serious artwork of Rose O\u2019Neill was placed before a larger audience for debate and appreciation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe world\u2019s greatest illustrator,\u201d said Thomas Hart Benton of O\u2019Neill. It may well be true.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Gallery<\/h1>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6141″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Here, the soul is massive, earth-like, yet rests thoughtfully on the clouds. Diminutive man, again naked, sleeps at his soul\u2019s feet. One of the more prominent works of the Paris exhibit, the image is considered a masterpiece of form. \u201cThe soul is still a rude achievement of the earth, uncouth, but a giant,\u2019 explained O\u2019Neill, \u201c[L]ike some poor Titan leaning on the sky.\u201d<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6142″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Inscrutable, represented by the solitary figure, awaits sphinx-like in expression, a stately faunness creature. Many of O\u2019Neill\u2019s \u201cmonsters\u201d show similar qualities: a beautiful, even perfect, human body stylized with wide lips, a powerful, sloping forehead, oft-closed eyes, and tubular, malleable hair, resembling a mass of horns. These \u201cmonsters\u201d exude a purposeful yet-mysterious calm.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6143″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]In the development of a tender, sensuous relationship, earth consoles man in strong, loving embrace. The eyes are again closed. Note the similarities of form between earth and nature although earth is masculine (often rising from stone) while nature is feminine, with animal-like attributes (hooves and sometimes horns).<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6144″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Earth, a great man-like figure appearing as of stone, nuzzles mankind. It is a common theme for O\u2019Neill (the interaction of man and nature) and she pulls great pathos and compassion from simple lines and curves. Look closely at the figures. Man, who is tenderly leaning upward, mouth open, anticipates a kiss.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6145″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Faunness earth, eyes closed, calm, fecund, softly sculpts man \u2014 represented here turning away, differently blind, feet emerging like tree trunks, a solitary figure of idealized masculinity. Here, there is tragedy, hope and timelessness.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6146″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]Reminiscent of Auguste Rodin\u2019s <\/em>The Kiss, <\/em>The Eternal Creature\u2019s voluptuous lines externalize O\u2019Neill\u2019s traditional sensibilities of life, earth, nature and the human form.<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/h1>\n

Although the Sweet Monster Collection \u2014 which may be viewed in great detail at the Bonniebrook Historical Society and Museum on the grounds of Rose O\u2019Neill\u2019s beloved Ozark mansion just north of present-day Branson \u2014 leaves us with many questions, the collection also gives some important answers.<\/p>\n

Rose O\u2019Neill was a beautiful, if melancholy, soul. Enormously talented, she was, for a time, one of the richest women in the world. But riches could not insulate her from great loss. She would twice marry and twice divorce. There is remarkable sensuality to her work, proving her understanding \u2014 and deep appreciation, perhaps longing \u2014 of the human form, both male and female. There is loneliness, tempered with contemplation.<\/p>\n

Rose\u2019s young brother, Jamie, died, quickly and unexpectedly, after helping an ill \u2014 and contagious \u2014 woman on the train between St. Louis and Springfield, Missouri. His death nearly broke her heart. In her art and poetry, there are corresponding periods of deep sadness. The native Ozark mountains are evoked in her art. Look closely and you can see shadows of great limestone and dolomite bluffs \u2014 old glades dark with cedar and forbidding. Lines flow across O\u2019Neill\u2019s paper like old Bear Creek flows across the stone at the foot of Bonniebrook.<\/p>\n

Rose O\u2019Neill grew up immersed in the Greek mythology of a classic, late-19th-century education and the Celtic legends from her first-generation Irish father.<\/p>\n

Both would find form in her art. Both would give art critics a reason to cry Paganism! regarding her illustrations. But that imprecation was often used lovingly, even at the turn of the 20th century, regarding O\u2019Neill\u2019s Sweet Monsters. Still, it is striking how modern the illustrations are \u2014 how full of emotion yet devoid of sentimentality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe buffoonery of the Kewpies and the passion of my serious drawings playing side by side is unusual,\u201d wrote O\u2019Neill, \u201cBut not too unusual. In this droll existence, the Hamlet and Lear have always consorted with the clown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally published JULY 30, 2012<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Below, perhaps O\u2019Neill\u2019s most violent work,<\/em>The First Love Death shocks the viewer with deep, archetypal visions. The sloping, animalistic foreheads are again notable, as is a nod to Greek tragedy, particularly Ovid\u2019s <\/em>Metamorphoses. Was this a study of O\u2019Neill\u2019s sculpture <\/em>Embrace of the Tree, a retelling of Apollo and Daphne?<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”6147″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Story Credits:<\/h1>\n

ALL ARTWORK IS COURTESY OF THE BONNIEBROOK HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM. STATEOFTHEOZARKS GRATEFULLY NOTES THE ALLOWANCE \u2014 FOR THE FIRST TIME \u2014 OF EXTENSIVE DIGITAL PRINTS TO BE MADE OF THE O\u2019NEILL SWEET MONSTER COLLECTION FOR AN INDEPENDENT ONLINE GALLERY VIEWING. PARTICULAR THANKS GO TO SUSAN SCOTT AND MARTHA MELTON FOR THEIR EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AND HARD WORK IN PRESERVING ROSE O\u2019NEILL ARTWORK. DIGITAL PRINT MANAGEMENT FOR STATEOFTHEOZARKS: J. HESTON.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] PLATE 1. The Centaur Escapes. The Centaur Escapes displays an enraged centaur, half-man and half-horse \u2014 muscular back arched, fists clenched \u2014 against a troubled sky. From whom is he escaping? What cause is there of this angst? O\u2019Neill, wisely, leaves that answer to the viewer \u2014 or, perhaps more personally, simply kept the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[955,949,582],"tags":[735,733,738],"class_list":["post-6148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hillbillyhistory","category-ozarkfinearts","category-sotoarchive","tag-kewpies","tag-rose-oneill","tag-sweet-monsters","category-955","category-949","category-582","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6148"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6166,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6148\/revisions\/6166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}