Beulah Ecton Woodard was an African-American sculptor and painter in California who specialized in African subjects. The first African American artist to show her work at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she founded the Los Angeles Negro Art Association (1937). Biddy Mason was brought to California as a slave in a wagon train. She petitioned for her freedom, and a judge granted it to her and her family in 1856. She became a successful nurse and midwife, and gained a small fortune through real estate investments. She donated generously to charities and was instrumental in the founding of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. Beulah Woodard (left) standing beside her painted clay sculpture "Biddy Mason," displayed on a wooden pedestal, with two unidentified women facing her.
Type
image
Identifier
uclalsc_1889_b24_f04_005.tif ark:/21198/z1df88cc
Subject
African American sculptors African American sculpture Woodard, Beulah Ecton, 1895-1955
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