"Nancy Elizabeth Prophet" (March 19,1890-1960)

Was born in Warwick,Rhode Island,to a family with deep roots in the region.She described her mam,Rosa E.Walker Profit,as a "mixed race Negro."Her daddy William H.Profit,claimed both African American and Native American ancestry;his mama was a Narragansett-Pequood who brought William's daddy out of slavery and then married him.The sculptor,who identified herself as "mulatto" in a 1910 census,changed her identity "Indian"in the 1920 census.This ambivalence about her racial heritage plagued Elizabeth throughout her life.Invited in 1959 to be included in the book American Negro Art,she refused insisting that "an anthropologist must certainly know that I am not a Negro,and though I am of mixed race blood,two races which I represent are quite different from that which you wish your publication to represent."It appears that Elizabeth did not feel close to her family,who discouraged her artistic ambitions.In fact,she had to her drawings and paintings from her parents,who considered such activities a waste of time.She gained admission to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD),one of the most respected art schools in the country,in 1914,paying her tuition by working as a housekeeper for a private family in Providence.She graduated in 1918 with a degree in painting and freehand drawing.Soon afterward Elizabeth changed the spelling of her surname,possibly to distance herself from her family.Despite social pressure to marry,produce children, and devote herself to family life,Elizabeth insisted on pursuing a career as an artist.She did marry in 1915.Her husband, Francis Ford, was ten years her senior and had attended Brown University,he never graduated.The marriage was troubled from the start by financial difficulties,infidelities,by both,parties and periods of prolonged separation.The couple officially separated in 1932.After graduation,Elizabeth tried to support herself by making portraits,but was not successful.At the same time,racist attitudes limited her opportunities.When submission of her work was accepted for a local exhibition,she was told not to attend the opening.Frustrated and angry,Elizabeth decided to try her luck abroad.She sailed for Paris in 1922,leaving her husband behind.She arrived in Paris with only $380 in her pocket.She quickly rented a studio in the Montparnassee district,for two months was unable to leave her bed because of emotional exhaustion.When she was finally able to begin sculpting,Elizabeth thrived on this creative stimulation.Her money ran out completely.She had to move frequently,always seeking cheaper rent,and at one point that she was stole food from a dog's dish.She kept on working despite these hardships.She studied with the respected sculptor Victor Joseph Sefoggin at L'Ecole Nationale des Beaux  Arts,and in 1924 had wooden bust included in the Salon d'Automne exhibition.She titled one of her first Paris works,a female nude,Poverty.In 1924 a benefactor gave her money for materials to make first life-size statue,Volonte;.in 1926 frustrated that the work was not going well Elizabeth smashed the statue.Poor and hungry,the sculptor was so desperate that she attempted to raise a few vegetables in a patch of ground near her residence.Elizabeth became so frail that by 1925 she was admitted to the hospital with malnutrition.She poured her feelings into her diary,writing of exhilaration through her work but also chronicling difficulty and near-despair.Her precarious financial situation was a frequent theme.In a passage from 1926,quoted in Notable Black American women,she wrote:"Days of plenty,and then days of want.Poverty,destable,poverty,how you trail behind me ever screeching out presence.Think you to ever make me a subject of your kingdom?Never! Though I die of hunger I shall never bend the knee to your Majesty for I am not of your race."Elizabeth often went without food or sleep,she persevered with her work.In 1927 another American sculptor in Paris,Mabel Gardner,met Elizabeth and became so concerned about her circumstances that she wrote to American actress Louise Brooks for help.Louise helped organize financial support for Elizabeth though the Students Fund of Boston,which sent the destitute artist $30 a month for two years.Her works from this period were included in the Salon d'automne in 1925,1926,& 1927,and were also accepted in exhibitions at RISD and in Boston.Among the many influential people who took interest in her life and work was W.E.B.Du Bois,with whom she had developed an intimate relationship before moving to Paris.The couple was often together in France,where W.E.B.---was married---traveled for the third and fourth Pan-African Congresses.When the two were apart,W.E.B. wrote letters encouraging Elizabeth and praising her talent.These were an important source of emotional comfort for the artist during her long periods of obscurity.In 1929 Elizabeth returned to the United States for eleven months.She was feted by leading patrons of the arts,and stayed for much of the with the Du Bois--family.She made gallery contacts and sold a major,piece,Discontent,to collectors who donated it to the art museum at RISD.Even so,Elizabeth returned France with little money.W.E.B.Du Bois had been unable to help her get financial support backing for future projects,though he did continue giving her moral support.Back in Paris,Elizabeth again found herself battling poverty and obscurity.By the early 1930s her work,was beginning to attract attention.French author Edouard Champion and his wife Julia,admirers of Elizabeth's work began paying the artist's rent and providing her with meals.This support enable her to continue working,and she exhibited two sculptures in Paris in 1932.French critics praised her work for its vision,originality,and expressiveness.In 1932 Elizabeth visited the United States to promote her work.She exhibited in Boston and was elected a member of the Art Association of Newport,Rhode Island,where several o her works of her works were included in the organization's Twenty-First Annual Exhibition.Among these was Elizabeth's best-known piece,Congolaise,a cherry wood head of a Masai warrior that critic Michael Duncan,many years later in Art in America,described as a "gorgeously carved" work that "sensitively portrays an elegant African warrior devoid of any air of the primitive."While in the United States,Elizabeth approached the Harmon Foundation about obtaining a teaching position at an African American university.Florence Read president of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia,responded positively Elizabeth had second thoughts  and returned to Paris in in 1933.A desperate year followed after she failed to win a Guggenheim fellowship.To heat her studio Elizabeth was forced to borrow money,and she ran afoul of the law over her inability to pay import taxes.Ten thousand francs in debt by 1934 and nearly estranged  from her patrons the Champions,she lived on nothing but tea and marmalade while working 18-hour days to renovate her studio.When a second invitation came that year from from Spelman,which W.E.B. had pushed the college to arrange,Elizabeth took the job.She began teaching there in the fall of 1934.With artist Hale Woodruff she expanded Spelman's art department,remaining on the faculty until 1944.Elizabeth was considered a demanding but through teacher,many students found her odd and aloof.She socialized with W.E.B. and his colleagues,she eventually fund life in Atlanta Dull.At the same time,W.E.B. became involved with a new woman and Elizabeth felt abandoned.She looked elsewhere for romance,possibly,among her students.Elizabeth was also frustrated by the demands that teaching made on her time.She longed to work but had no proper studio at Spelman;as a result her own sculpture suffered.Increasigly withdrawn,Elizaeth descended into eccentric behaviors that further alienated from the campus mainstream.Always elegantly and dramatically dressed,she walked around the college speaking in whispers and carrying a live rooster that she brought to class for her students to sketch.Elizabeth picked mushrooms from the college lawn and cooked them with eggs.On one occasion,disappointed with a student's clay head of a woman,Elizabeth smashed the work to pieces.Elizabeth complained that her makeshift studio on campus was a grave.