
Rose O'Neill
feminist artist + Kewpie inventor
Kewpie fever hit in time for Christmas 1909, soon after Rose O'Neill debuted her friendly little cupid characters in Ladies' Home Journal. A self-taught artist famous for political cartoons, Rose had been a working illustrator since 13. But kewpies that made Rose's fortune. With her millions, she supported a large family {an Ozarks mansion for her beloved mother} and many an artist {at her bohemian salon+colony, Castle Carabas}.
Twice divorced, Rose challenged society's gender roles through the suffrage movement and her own art ~ critically fêted drawings, poetry and novels still widely admired today.
Kewpies | though she'd been drawing cherubic children for years, the idea came to her in a dream ~ inspired by memories of her baby brother Edward, who died young
Kewpie redux | her cupids returned to fashion in the 1960s, with reproduction dolls, artwork and other merchandise
illustrations | Rose started selling illustrations when she was a teenager. In addition to her cheeky comics made famous in the satire mag Puck, she produced work for Edison Phonograph, Jell-O and Eastman Kodak
art with a social purpose | lent her drawing talents to creating posters and postcards campaigning for the vote + women's rights
going corset-less | championed dress reform, preferring loose, bohemian robes over restrictive women's clothing
lifelong battle against gender stereotyping and social roles | her "Sweet Monsters" series and later writing are deliberately androgynous
quote collector! | kept notebooks of conversations with guests and friends {dancer Martha Graham was a frequent visitor} at Carabas Castle in Westport, Conn. {friends said she embellished and refined them}
three big moments
1888 | won Omaha World Herald art contest at 13 with her drawing "Temptation Leading to an Abyss." The judges were skeptical a 13-year-old girl could have drawn it, and made her produce a new drawing in person before awarding her the $5 prize. A few years later, she was selling her drawings, and moved to New York in 1892, making rounds of magazine offices escorted by nuns {to preserve her virtue and safety}
1896 | a comic strip entitled "The Old Subscriber Calls" is published in Truth magazine ~ the first published comic strip by a woman. She'd go on to become the first woman admitted to Society of Illustrators in NYC, in 1917.
1909 | Kewpies debuted in the Christmas issue of Ladies’ Home Journal. For 25 years, Kewpie stories were published in women’s magazines, including Good Housekeeping and Women’s Home Companion. Dolls began being produced in 1912, creating a merchandise line to rival Mickey Mouse.
from | to
child prodigy | millionaire novelist, illustrator, sculptor + respected fine artist
~ 1920s Paris + NYC exhibitions of her "Sweet Monsters" drew wild critical acclaim ~
born on
June 25, 1874
born in
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania
birth name
Rose Cecil O'Neill
nickname | also known as
Mother of the Kewpies
Queen of Bohemian Society
citizen of
United States of America
daughter of
Alice Asenath Cecilia O’Neill {Meemie}
~teacher, breadwinner~
William Patrick O’Neill
~sometime-bookseller, dreamer, wanderer~
sister of
Lee, Hugh, James, Clarence, Callista, Edward
grew up in
Omaha, Nebraska
lived in
Missouri Ozarks | New York City | Capri | Connecticut
educated at
home {self-taught artist}
Convent of the Sisters of St. Regis, New York City
studied with | influenced by
Auguste Rodin
loved studying
folklore + mythology
married to + divorced from | partner of
Gray Latham {1896-1901}
Harry Leon Wilson {1902-1907}
Jean Gallenne {rumored partner}
advocate for
women’s rights
racial equality
~used Kewpies to promote her causes, including a storybook about Kewpies befriending a black child who wasn't allowed to play with white children [1]~
died on
April 6, 1944
~ stroke | died penniless after the Depression, flagging kewpie sales + her dependents drained her resources ~
sources
Library of Congress | Prints and Photographs Division
Bonniebrook Historical Society
image credits
Rose O'Neill and Bonniebrook Museum
Gertrude Käsebier | Library of Congress | public domain
collapse bio bits"Bah! why do artists always represent Fortune as a woman? Because of the way she smiles on the rich fellows, regardless of their other qualities."
Puck | april 1903
"You are a woman. So am I. We have the same problem. We are of one sisterhood. Let us help each other."
in The Times Dispatch {Richmond, Va.} | july 1914
"I see a greater kindness in the eyes of women for women. The women’s movement has caused this."
in The Times Dispatch {Richmond, Va.} | july 1914
"I amuse myself with the idea that my Kewpies are a symbol of the American spirit."
in The Times Dispatch {Richmond, Va.} | july 1914
"Fallen women, and women who marry for any reason other than love, are identical."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"Woman is a sheep, placidly convinced of her unalterable sheepishness. She has yet to learn that she is far the greater of the two sexes."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"Man has made and ignorantly kept woman a slave."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"Men have been the specialists. Women have done all the rest."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"Moral shocks are absurd."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"We all die sooner than we want, and if we do not, that is a still greater tragedy."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"I have a thrilling hope that women are going to do something glorious in the arts. It is my passionate conviction. I am always indignant when women are denied creative power in art."
Woman’s the Virtues, Man’s the Stupidity, Is the Division the Gentle Inventor of Kewpies Makes | april 1915
"The first step is to free women from the yoke of modern fashions and modern dress. How can they hope to compete with men when they are boxed up tight in the clothes that are worn today?"
Rose O’Neill in Campaign to Introduce her Novel Art Garb | april 1915
"May your Christmas fire burn merrily, and joy and peace abide. For it's in the flickering shadows that the good luck Kewpies hide."
Kewpie Christmas card | circa 1920
"I am in love with magic and monsters, and the drama of form emerging from the formless."
Rose O’Neill’s Sculptured Drawings | march 1922
"Let us be soft, / Let us not be brave; / Nor put more iron ships upon the wave"
"Soft Song" | october 1922
"Blow out trouble; Speed its going. Bring the New Year, Bright and glowing."
Kewpie New Year's card | 1923
"I wish...I didn't have an earthly thing to do, But sit around and think of lovely things I'd like to have this Christmas bring to you."
Kewpie Christmas card | 1923
"I’m so simple. It’s revolting. I give people a chance to think. I go towards them softly."
quoted in The New Yorker | 1934
"But in my youth the sight of the good paper sheet! (It might have been the beautiful blank page at the end of books.) The capable empty sheet with its hospitality, a white receptacle for the multitudinous possible—oh possible—guest! My heart leaped up as at a rainbow."
The Story of Rose O'Neill | 1940
curated with care by Meghan Miller Brawley {august 2014}
comic | "Fortune" | Puck | april 15, 1903
Original caption ~ “Bah! why do artists always represent Fortune as a woman? Because of the way she smiles on the rich fellows, regardless of their other qualities.” Rose first gained fame + notoriety through political cartoons drawn for satirical magazines like Puck. Her comics frequently teased and lampooned men ~ especially in Puck, whose chief readership was male ~ and the women she drew were intelligent and spirited.
Rose O'Neill | Library of Congress | Prints and Photographs Division
dolls | Kewpies | [1912-1913]
Rose's Kewpies first appeared in magazines in 1909, although the distinctive top-knotted, cherubic infant characters frequently graced earlier work. The heart-shaped sticker on the doll is unique to early figurines. Rose's great-nephew David O'Neill said Rose told German dollmaker George Borgfeldt & Co the original dolls were "a travesty," and ordered the most attention paid to the smallest dolls—the only ones poor children would be able to afford. She traveled to Germany to ensure the old molds were destroyed, and maintained tight creative control over her product. Most dolls were porcelain, but Rose preferred the soft-bodied "Cuddle Kewps" she and her sister Callista arranged to have manufactured.
Scottdoesntknow | CC BY-SA 3.0
A Pre-Parade Gathering of New York's Woman Suffrage Workers | New York Tribune
Rose {far right} with her younger sister and business partner, Callista, together with other suffragists in 1915. Rose lent her artistic talents—and the Kewpies, who entreated, "Give Mother the vote!" ~ to the suffrage movement, creating posters and drawings for the National American Woman's Suffrage Association.
Paul Thompson | New York Tribune | Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers | Library of Congress
exhibition catalog | Wildenstein Galleries | NYC | march 1-11, 1922
Rose O'Neill was more than a comic artist and sentimental illustrator. Her serious art included a series she called her "Sweet Monsters"—muscular figures, half human, half creature, often male + female at the same time. Lifted from a fever dream of mythology and fairy tales, the monsters captivated viewers, including sculptor Auguste Rodin, who urged Rose to exhibit her work. She did, in Paris in 1921 and New York City in 1922, to wild acclaim. This piece is called “The Will to Live”.
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