Marion Buck Stoll
1879 – 1961
Born "Marion Buck" in 1879 (d. 1961) in Waterbury, Stoll was the daughter of Roswell Hollister Buck of Philadelphia and Minnie A. Donaldson of Waterbury. She was the granddaughter of Mrs. Thomas Donaldson, superintendent of the Southmayd Home (a home for old ladies) that Mrs Donaldson established in 1895 in connection with the First Congregational church.
Stoll graduated from St Margaret's School in 1897 and later entered Drexel University in Philadelphia where she trained as an illustrator. Her illustrations appeared in magazines such as the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post. She traveled to Europe to further her studies at the School of Applied and Industrial Art in Munich. There, her interest apparently shifted from drawing to needlework. It was her goal to move the consideration of needlework from craft to fine art, called Art Needlework or Needlepainting. Critics of the 1930s reported that indeed, in her hands, "the needle invades the province of art" and that the needle is for her "a tool with which she can express her ideas as another would use a brush or pencil". She traveled throughout Europe, settling in Oxford, England in 1921. Her "wool pictures" were exhibited in Oxford and at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She returned to America in 1931 and was featured in 'Life' magazine in 1940. The wool embroideries by Stoll in the Mattatuck's collection are typical of her modernist style. The buildings have simplified geometric shapes in unpopulated cityscapes. Lush and dramatic colors are achieved with the use of up to fifty different European wools. The stitches are tight and closely aligned as she sought seamlessness equivalent to painterly brushwork. She typically signs her works "MS" and the last two numbers of the year below. Stoll's works can be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Art's collection, as well as the Mattatuck and a number of private collections.
Stoll was an active woman beyond her artwork. 1910 headlines of the 'Waterbury American' announced "Mrs. Stoll Climbs the Winkleturm / Waterbury Girl the First Woman to Accomplish Feat." The article continued "By her achievement the Waterbury girl, already widely known as an artist, has established a reputation as a darling mountain climber." During this period, she also married H. Leon Stoll, a man she met while studying at Drexel University. She left soon after to study art in Europe, and the pair divorced in 1911 due to this long separation. She spent the next few decades in Europe, acting as a Red Cross nurse during WWI and experiencing periods of sickness in which she was unable to travel. By the end of her life, she had returned to Waterbury to live out her days at the Southmayd school founded by her grandmother.
Stoll graduated from St Margaret's School in 1897 and later entered Drexel University in Philadelphia where she trained as an illustrator. Her illustrations appeared in magazines such as the Ladies' Home Journal and the Saturday Evening Post. She traveled to Europe to further her studies at the School of Applied and Industrial Art in Munich. There, her interest apparently shifted from drawing to needlework. It was her goal to move the consideration of needlework from craft to fine art, called Art Needlework or Needlepainting. Critics of the 1930s reported that indeed, in her hands, "the needle invades the province of art" and that the needle is for her "a tool with which she can express her ideas as another would use a brush or pencil". She traveled throughout Europe, settling in Oxford, England in 1921. Her "wool pictures" were exhibited in Oxford and at the Victoria and Albert Museum. She returned to America in 1931 and was featured in 'Life' magazine in 1940. The wool embroideries by Stoll in the Mattatuck's collection are typical of her modernist style. The buildings have simplified geometric shapes in unpopulated cityscapes. Lush and dramatic colors are achieved with the use of up to fifty different European wools. The stitches are tight and closely aligned as she sought seamlessness equivalent to painterly brushwork. She typically signs her works "MS" and the last two numbers of the year below. Stoll's works can be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Art's collection, as well as the Mattatuck and a number of private collections.
Stoll was an active woman beyond her artwork. 1910 headlines of the 'Waterbury American' announced "Mrs. Stoll Climbs the Winkleturm / Waterbury Girl the First Woman to Accomplish Feat." The article continued "By her achievement the Waterbury girl, already widely known as an artist, has established a reputation as a darling mountain climber." During this period, she also married H. Leon Stoll, a man she met while studying at Drexel University. She left soon after to study art in Europe, and the pair divorced in 1911 due to this long separation. She spent the next few decades in Europe, acting as a Red Cross nurse during WWI and experiencing periods of sickness in which she was unable to travel. By the end of her life, she had returned to Waterbury to live out her days at the Southmayd school founded by her grandmother.
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