Brave faces emerge as sculptor honors women's suffrage

NASHVILLE — Sculptor Alan LeQuire stands atop a wooden stool using a small tool to etch the intricate folds of an early 20th-century dress. He pauses to examine the 7-foot clay statue before making his next move, seemingly undistracted by the excited observers admiring his work.

LeQuire is widely known for his sculptures of “heroic scale,” and this five-figure monument commemorating Tennessee’s pivotal role in passing the 19th Amendment doesn’t disappoint.

From the monument's back, the group of women are seen supporting each other by holding hands or a guiding touch. Their backs are arched and chests heaved upward as if LeQuire caught them mid-march, together chanting to have their voices heard in American democracy.

LeQuire is the same artist who gave Nashville the dancers “Musica” at the Music Row Roundabout and “Athena Parthenos” at The Parthenon. His next contribution to the city’s public art will be dedicated Oct. 27 and stand in War Memorial Plaza outside the state capitol building.

While LeQuire's two other works each appeal to a certain crowd, LeQuire Gallery Director Elizabeth Cave says this one will capture an even broader audience because it represents an event of nationwide significance.

“This one will resonate coast to coast,” Cave said.

In 1920, Tennessee was the 36th and final state needed to pass the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so that women could vote. All five women depicted on the monument — Carrie Chapman Catt, Anne Dallas Dudley, Abby Crawford Milton, Frankie Pierce and Sue Shelton White — played critical roles in the amendment’s passage and either lived in Nashville or came to rally support on that day.

The ladies of the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument organization are eager to pay homage to these “indomitable women” and close the gap between the number of statues dedicated to men and women.

“Public art represents what people think is important,” said Paula Casey, the group's director. “The fact that we don’t already have a statue like this shows people don’t know the story, and we want people to be grateful that this happened in Tennessee.”

But LeQuire says sculpting these five figures fulfills a personal goal for him, too.

“I always wanted to do statues of real women,” LeQuire said. “The human body is the ultimate subject for an artist, because it’s the one object that carries meaning for everyone, and this fills a void (of statues of women).”

To ensure accuracy of every detail — from the buttons on their shoes to the creases of their cheeks — photos of the women and their clothing surround LeQuire. And the placards they hold are exact replicas of those actually carried by the Tennessee suffragists.

At the monument’s base, three more female “political trailblazers” will be portrayed in relief to show what the five standing above them made possible.

The three include Lois DeBerry, Beth Harwell and Jane Eskind, to whom Metro mayoral candidate Linda Eskind Rebrovick has family ties. The mayoral hopeful chose to include her maiden name “Eskind” in her campaign because of Jane Eskind’s political notoriety for being the first woman to win a statewide election.

In addition to the monument’s dedication being timed to celebrate the 95th anniversary of women’s suffrage, it  also may mark a female Nashville mayor, as Eskind Rebrovick and Megan Barry contend for the office in next week’s election.

Both have contributed to the privately funded monument that will cost about $900,000, according to Casey. Through fundraising societies and a GoFundMe account, the group has raised about two-thirds of that and is still accepting donations.

Unlike most artists, and despite his rapidly approaching deadline, LeQuire allows — even encourages — the public to come to his studio on Charlotte Avenue to see the statues being molded.

“That is so exciting,” Cave said. “All of us are welcomed to be witnesses to the building of a monument.”