RARE “American Pianist" Marian MacDowell Hand Signed TLS Dated 1925 For Sale

Up for sale "American Pianist" Marian MacDowell Hand Signed TLS Dated 1925.

ES-9605

Marian MacDowell (maiden

name Marian Griswold Nevins) (November 22, 1857 – August 23, 1956) was

an American pianist and philanthropist. In 1907, she and her husband Edward

MacDowell founded the MacDowell

Colony for artists in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Her

leadership of the artist retreat through two world wars, the Great

Depression and other challenges created one of the foremost cultural

institutions in the United States, which cultivated the work of generations of

musicians, writers, poets, sculptors, and visual artists.  Marian

Griswold Nevins was born in New York City,

the third of five children born to David H. Nevins, a Wall Street banker, and

his wife, Cornelia L. Perkins. When she was eight, her mother died in

childbirth. Her aunt Caroline Perkins of South Carolina was a talented musician

who came to New York to teach piano. She recognized her niece's gifts and

encouraged them. As Marian grew older, she realized that she needed to study in

Europe, a basis for being taken seriously as a performer or artist at the time.

With a chaperone, she left for Frankfurt in 1880 intending to study with Clara

Schumann at the Hoch

Conservatory. Finding that Clara Schumann was away, Nevins asked for

advice in getting another teacher and was referred to Edward

MacDowell, a young American composer. After working together for

several years, they decided to marry on July 24, 1884. They had one child who

was stillborn. From the beginning Marian had great faith in her husband's

talent and wanted him to devote himself to composing.