Brenda Putnam
 The Pigeon Girl, Brenda Putnam, Indianapolis Museum of Art
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Brenda Putnam (June 3, 1890, Minneapolis, Minnesota – October 18, 1975, Concord, New Hampshire) was a noted American sculptor, teacher and author.
She was the daughter of Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth Munroe. Her older sister Shirley and she were granddaughters of publisher George Palmer Putnam. She attended the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., where she first was taught to sculpt. She also trained as a classical pianist, and toured with violinist Edith Rubel and cellist Marie Roemaet as the Edith Rubel Trio.
She studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1905-07, under Mary E. Moore, William McGregor Paxton and Bela Pratt; then for three years at the Art Students League of New York under James Earle Fraser. She also studied at the Corcoran Museum Art School in Washington, D.C.
Early in her career, Putnam was noted for her busts of children and for garden and fountain figures. She exhibited an overtly sensual piece at the National Academy of Design in 1915, Charmides [Dialogue], a nude woman and man asleep together, which was described as "Rodin-like." To mark the grave of her close friend, pianist Anne Simon, she created a profound work: the Simon Memorial (1917)— a nude male angel ecstatically rising from the clouds.
"Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, is a supremely beautiful spot wherein are erected many striking memorials. Within recent years there has grown to be another place of pilgrimage—the memorial to Mrs. Otto Torney Simon. The triumph of her passing from "life to life" ... is symbolized in the Simon Memorial wrought by Brenda Putnam. Until recently, I had never heard of this winged figure interpreted by one who knows the full significance of the statue. [T]his angel with wide flung hands and upward gaze symbolizes liberation of our faculties and our abilities, the enfranchisement of the soul released by the kindly gift of Death."
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