Woman of the Century/Theo Alice Ruggles

RUGGLES, Miss Theo Alice, sculptor, born in Brookline, Mass., 27th January, 1871. As a child she took delight in modeling in clay, expressing an admiration for form and beauty that attracted the attention of her parents to her talent. THEO ALICE RUGGLES. At the age of fourteen she modeled a "Reclining Horse" in snow in the door-yard of her home, and crowds of visitors went out to Brookline from Boston to see the wonderful work of the little girl. In 1886 she was placed under the instruction of Henry Hudson Kitson, the sculptor. In the autumn of 1887 she went to Paris, France, with her mother, where she remained during the following three years, working and studying under the guidance of Mr. Kitson, pursuing at the same time the study of drawing under Dagnan-Bouveret, Blanc and Courtois. Her first work, a bust of an Italian child, made in Boston, was exhibited, together with a bust of "A Shepherd Lad," in the Paris Salon of 1888, where each succeeding year during her stay her work was readily accepted. In the International Exposition of 1889 she received honorable mention for a life-sized statue of a boy, entitled "Aux Bords de l'Oise," and the same honor was accorded to her in the Paris Salon of 1890 for her " Young Orpheus." She had the distinction of being the youngest sculptor to whom any award had ever been granted. She has won two medals from the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Exposition of Boston, in which city she continues her art work. She is the daughter of C. W. Ruggles, a well-known business man of Boston, and she lives with her parents in the Back Bay. She is descended from an old English family, who settled in America in the seventeenth century. An industrious, unpretentious worker, quiet, swift, modest, she has the character of a true artist