Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > WEBER, Anna
Artist Database
WEBER, Anna
- Born
- Pennsylvania, United States, 1814
- Died
- Waterloo County, Ontario, 1888
- Biography synopsis
- As a woman fraktur artist, Anna Weber was an anomaly in her Pennsylvania-German Mennonite community. She arrived in Waterloo County in 1825 where her family began farming and her father was ordained as a minister. After the death of her father (in 1854) and her mother (in 1864), she moved from household to household, living as a dependent with various members of the community. She was described as being of "unbrilliant mind" and extremely individualistic, a trait regarded with suspicion and disdain by many of her peers. In addition to decorative pen and wash fraktur art, which she began to practice in 1855, Weber also worked in various fiber arts, including embroidery and hooked rugs. She made show towels (finely embroidered linen strips), stuffed animals for children, woolen mats with stylized scenes, and also designed hope chests. Many of these objects may have been intended as gifts to her host families. Instead of employing the traditional motifs of fraktur art, most likely learned from Mr. Altsdorf, a teacher and fraktur artist in Pennsylvania, Weber often naturalized her designs and depicted animals and other elements from her everyday surroundings. Her works are known for their good sense of composition and colour, and are occasionally compared with art nouveau stained glass or tiles. Unusually for a Mennonite artist, Weber signed and dated all of her works, incorporating the letters and numbers into the total design. She continued to paint into old age despite various ailments, including arthritis and dropsy, and sixty of her fraktur paintings are extant.
- Media used
- Drawing
- Embroidery
- Fraktur
- Painting
- Textiles
- Education
- Private study (under Mr. Altsdorf, Pennsylvania)
- File & Archive locations
- Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- Toronto Reference Library, ON
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, ON
- Mennonite Archives of Ontario
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- "Anna's Art." Brantford Expositor 15 Nov. 1976
- "Decorated Book." Ontario History 68 (Dec. 1976): 265-68
- "Fraktur Painting." Canadian Collector 19 (Sept-Oct. 1984): 38
- Bird, Michael. Canadian Folk Art: Old Ways in a New Land. Toronto, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 1983
- Bird, Michael S. Ontario Fraktur: A Pennsylvania-German Folk Tradition in Early Canada. Toronto: M. F. Feheley Publications, 1977
- Cornell, Pamela. "Kitchener Youth Unfolds Tale of Mennonite Artist." Stratford Beacon Herald 31 Dec. 1976
- French, William. "A Youthful Sleuth on the Trail of Anna." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 3 Feb. 1977
- Good, Edgar Reginald. Anna's Art: The Fraktur Art of Anna Weber, a Waterloo County Mennonite Artist, 1814-1888. Kitchener: Pochauna Publications, 1976
- Harper, J. Russell. A People's Art: Primitive, Naïve, Provincial and Folk Painting in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1974
- Hearn, John. "Collector's Item: Fraktur book beautiful." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 27 Feb. 1981: BL9
- Heller, Liane. "Youth Found Artist Time Forgot." Kitchener Waterloo Record 18 Nov. 1976
- Inglis, Grace. "Canadian Art Treasure: Anna Weber's fraktur." Hamilton Spectator 15 Jan. 1977
- Jansen, Jo. Jo Sonja's Guide to Decorative Painting: Traditional Inspirations/Contemporary Expressions. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1999
- McKenzie, Ruth. "Fanny Amelia Bayfield (Wright)." Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online Ottawa: Libraries and Archives Canada, 2008
http://www.biographi.ca/en/ - Moore, David. "Focus on Art: Early Ontario art Facinating." Brantford Expositor 19 Aug. 1978
- Patterson, Nancy-Lou. "Anna Weber hat das gemacht: Anna Weber (1814-1888) - a fraktur painter of Waterloo County, Ontario." Mennonite Life 30.2 (1975): 15-9
- Stolzfus, Louise. Two Amish Folk Artists: The Story of Henry Lapp and Barbara Ebersol. Good Books, 1996
- Wilson, Carol Ann. "Lost Art Form Discovered by Waterloo Man." Brantford Expositor 15 Nov. 1976
- Wyatt, Louise. "Fraktur Art Collection Touted." London Free Press 12 Feb. 1977
- Yardley, Jeanne and Linda J. Kenyon. "Dead and Buried: Murder and writing women's lives." Revue internationale d'études canadiennes 11 (Spring 1995): 195-205
- Zyvatkauskas, Betty. "Great Getaways: German folk culture right at home in Kitchener." Globe and Mail (Toronto) 2 Mar. 1985: T4
