Wheeler, Candace (1827–1923)

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Wheeler, Candace (1827–1923)

American designer who was the first woman to work professionally in the decorative arts in America . Born in Delhi, New York, on March 24, 1827; died in New York City on August 5, 1923; second daughter and third of eight children of Abner Gilman Thurber (a dairy farmer and fur dealer) and Lucy (Dunham) Thurber; educated at home in the arts; attended Delaware Academy in Delhi, New York; married Thomas M. Wheeler (a bookkeeper and businessman), on June 28, 1844 (died 1895); children: Candace (1845–1876); James Cooper (b. 1853); Dora Wheeler Keith (1856–1940); Dunham (b. 1861).

Encouraged by Eastman Johnson to take up painting (1854); studied painting in Dresden, Germany; eldest daughter died (1876); founded the Society of Decorative Art of New York City (1877); founded the Women's Exchange with Mrs. William Choate (1878); invited to join Louis Comfort Tiffany, Samuel Coleman, and Lockwood de Forest in Associated Artists to create textiles and embroideries; left Tiffany and founded own Associated Artists (1883); worked on advisory council of Woman's Art School of Cooper Union; directed exhibit of women's work for Chicago World's Columbian Exposition and was color director of Women's Building (1893); retired from Associated Artists (1900); published Principles of Home Decoration (1903).

Candace Wheeler opened up the world of decorative arts as a profession not only for herself but for many indigent women who provided for themselves through the institutions she founded. Her textile designs and skills in interior decoration were much admired as she became a key figure in the art nouveau movement in the United States. At a time when American textile designs were emerging into prominence, Wheeler was the first woman to work professionally in the decorative arts.

Wheeler was born Candace Thurber in Delhi, New York, in 1827 and grew up in a creative family headed by her father, an abolitionist and Presbyterian deacon. Both her parents encouraged her interests in artistic endeavors such as drawing, poetry, weaving, spinning, sewing, knitting, and embroidery, much of which she learned under the tutelage of her mother. At age 17, she married Thomas Wheeler who also appreciated art and literature, and together they became friends and patrons of the artists in their community on the outskirts of New York City. Their country home, Nestledown, in Jamaica, New York, was a gathering place for many of the artists of the day, a circle which included Eastman Johnson, who encouraged Wheeler to take up painting after noting her interest in drawing and her fine eye for color.

Wheeler did not seriously pursue artistic studies until the fall of 1865, when the entire Wheeler family went abroad to visit the artists and galleries in Italy, France, and Germany. They ended up in Dresden where Wheeler's husband left the family for the winter, and Wheeler was able to study for an entire season with a professor of painting. She described this period in her life as "the beginning of preparation for work in the world."

Tragedy struck Wheeler when her eldest daughter died in June 1876. To cope with her grief, she turned to charitable work that put to use all of her skills. While visiting the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia shortly after her daughter's death, she found inspiration in an exhibit of art needlework from a London school set up specifically to teach "decayed gentle-women" how to earn a living by means of this decorative art. Women who were educated yet destitute, with no respectable means of support, were often called "surplus women," living in the direst poverty or as poor working dependents in the homes of well-off relatives. Scorned and ridiculed by society, they often performed the drudgery of keeping house with none of the status of married women and no means to achieve independence. Wheeler felt compelled to organize a similar project at home to aid women in such circumstances in New York City. With the support of some of the wealthiest women in Manhattan, she founded the Society of Decorative Arts of New York City in 1877. The group exhibited and sold women's handicrafts and taught classes in embroidery and china painting. Wheeler left the organization the following year and, with the help of Mrs. William Choate , established the Women's Exchange to market a variety of products made by women.

In 1879, Wheeler was approached by Louis Comfort Tiffany with an offer to join him in his new interior design company, Associated Artists. Tiffany, a painter and glassmaker, was among those who introduced art nouveau to America. Two other artists, Samuel Coleman and Lockwood de Forest, managed woodworking and carving, and Wheeler was in charge of the soft arts, including textiles, embroidery, tapestry and needlework. As was the style of art nouveau, she made much use of floral motifs and showed the influence of Japanese art and design. Among Wheeler's commissions were Mark Twain's house in Hartford, Connecticut, the Union League Club in New York City, and the White House, redecorated at the beginning of the Chester A. Arthur administration.

In 1883, Wheeler decided that the textile department could survive on its own, and she founded her own company, also called Associated Artists, made up entirely of women. She was expressly concerned with showing that women could make a good living if properly trained. Her first assistant was her daughter Dora Wheeler Keith , who had studied painting in Paris. Candace experimented with color and texture, designing rich new fabrics of printed silk, velvets, damasks, and brocades. Fitting her designs to their settings, she created a Scottish thistle pattern for Andrew Carnegie and a pattern featuring bells, wheels, and drifting smoke for a railway parlor car. She invented new methods, techniques, and stitches, for which she held British and American patents. Her tapestries were based on American themes such as Evangeline, after Longfellow, and Hester Prynne, after Nathaniel Hawthorne's character from The Scarlet Letter.

At the same time, Wheeler was working on the advisory council of the Woman's Art School of Cooper Union and lecturing at the New York Institute for Artist-Artisans. In 1893, during the planning of the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition, she was named both director of the exhibit of women's work in the applied arts and color director of the Women's Building. She and her daughter Dora collaborated on decorations for the library of the Women's Building in vivid blues and greens to harmonize with the sky and water visible from the window. "Fifteen years ago, no American manufacturer thought of buying an American design for his carpet, or wallpaper, or textile," said Wheeler. "Today the manufacturers all agree that the most popular designs they can furnish are made by our native designers, who are, to a very large extent, women."

In 1900, Wheeler retired from Associated Artists, handing the reins over to her son, Dunham Wheeler, then took up her pen. She wrote innovative articles and essays on color and decoration; an autobiography, Yesterdays in a Busy Life (1918); and an important and influential book, Principles of Home Decoration, published in 1903. Candace Wheeler died at age 96, writing and painting to the end. Although tastes and styles have changed over time, Wheeler's legacy of opening the professions of textile design and interior decoration for women and giving higher status to American designers has lasted.