Rose McClendon Sculpture

Reflecting the quiet beauty of its site, this sculpture depicting Rose McClendon sits adjacent to Fallingwater's canopied walkway that connects the main house to the guesthouse. McClendon (1884-1936) was one of the most renowned African-American stage performers of her time. She starred in eleven Broadway productions, including Deep River, the original company of Porgy, and Mulatto, a drama written expressly for her by the poet Langston Hughes. Of McClendon's venerable stage presence, Ethel Barrymore once said, “She can teach them all distinction.” Beyond the stage, McClendon directed and produced, co-founded the Negro People's Theatre in Harlem, and supervised the Federal Negro Theatre.

The artist, Richmond Barthe, has been widely exhibited. After attending the Art Institute of Chicago to pursue study in painting, Barthe began to create increasingly in the third dimension, finding in clay a greater breadth of sympathetic expression. His subjects were often figurative, and inspired by his passion for theatre and the arts, as well as his interest in depicting the ways in which strength and spirituality are borne and expressed in the human form. Barthe once said of this artistic philosophy, “My work is all wrapped up with my search for God. I am looking for God inside people.”

This sculpture is one of three by Barthe in the Kaufmann collection at Fallingwater. One of these, a bust of Edgar Kaufmann, jr.(sic), was commissioned by the family and now sits on the desk in Edgar Kaufmann, Sr.'s study.

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