Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Encyclopedia
Harriet Goodhue Hosmer was an American
sculptor
.
.
She showed an early aptitude for modeling, and studied anatomy with her father, a physician, and afterwards at the St Louis Medical College. She then studied in Boston
until 1852, when, with her friend Charlotte Cushman, she went to Rome
, where from 1853 to 1860 she was the pupil of the English sculptor John Gibson
.
While living in Rome, she was associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne
, Thorvaldsen
, Thackeray
, George Eliot
and George Sand
; and she was frequently the guest of the Brownings
at Casa Guidi, in Florence
. Later she also resided in Chicago
and Terre Haute, Indiana.
Novelist Henry James
unflatteringly referred to the group of women artists in Rome of which she was a part as "The White Marmorean Flock," borrowing a term from Nathaniel Hawthorne
in The Marble Faun
. These artists included lesbians Anne Whitney
, Emma Stebbins
, Edmonia Lewis
and non-lesbians Louisa Lander, Margaret Foley
, Florence Freeman, and Vinnie Ream
.
She was devoted for 25 years to Lady Ashburton, widow of Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (died 1864). She was born Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie, youngest daughter of James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie
, and had one daughter, the Hon. Mary Florence ("Maisie"), born 1860 in London.
Hosmer died at Watertown, Massachusetts
, on February 21, 1908.
Mount Hosmer
, near Lansing, Iowa
is named after Hosmer, the result a race to the top that she won as a youth.
"The Mermaid's Cradle", Bronze, Fountain Square, Larchmont, NY
A book of poetry, "Waking Stone: Inventions on the Life Of Harriet Hosmer," by Carole Simmons Oles, was published in 2006.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
Biography
Harriet Hosmer was born at Watertown, MassachusettsWatertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
.
She showed an early aptitude for modeling, and studied anatomy with her father, a physician, and afterwards at the St Louis Medical College. She then studied in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
until 1852, when, with her friend Charlotte Cushman, she went to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where from 1853 to 1860 she was the pupil of the English sculptor John Gibson
John Gibson (sculptor)
John Gibson, was a Welsh sculptor.-Early life:He was born near Conwy, Wales, his father being a market gardener. To his mother, whom he described as ruling his father and all the family, he owed the energy and determination which carried him over every obstacle.When he was nine years old the...
.
While living in Rome, she was associated with Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
, Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen
Bertel Thorvaldsen was a Danish-Icelandic sculptor of international fame, who spent most of his life in Italy . Thorvaldsen was born in Copenhagen into a Danish/Icelandic family of humble means, and was accepted to the Royal Academy of Arts when he was eleven years old...
, Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
, George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
and George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
; and she was frequently the guest of the Brownings
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
at Casa Guidi, in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
. Later she also resided in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and Terre Haute, Indiana.
Novelist Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
unflatteringly referred to the group of women artists in Rome of which she was a part as "The White Marmorean Flock," borrowing a term from Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts to Nathaniel Hathorne and the former Elizabeth Clarke Manning. His ancestors include John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials...
in The Marble Faun
The Marble Faun
The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni, also known as Transformation, was the last of the four major romances by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and was published in 1860. The Marble Faun, written on the eve of the American Civil War, is set in a fantastical Italy...
. These artists included lesbians Anne Whitney
Anne Whitney
Anne Whitney was an American sculptor and poet. She was born in Watertown, Massachusetts on September 2, 1821 and died in Boston, Massachusetts on January 23, 1915.-Early years:...
, Emma Stebbins
Emma Stebbins
Emma Stebbins was among the first notable American woman sculptors.- Career :Born and raised in a wealthy New York family, Stebbins was encouraged by her family in her pursuit of art from an early age. In 1857, sponsored by her brother Col. Henry G...
, Edmonia Lewis
Edmonia Lewis
Mary Edmonia Lewis was the first African American and Native American woman to gain fame and recognition as a sculptor in the international fine arts world...
and non-lesbians Louisa Lander, Margaret Foley
Margaret Foley
-Early years:Born in 1820, Margaret was a self-taught sculptor, whittling and carving in the rural city of Vergennes, Vermont.As most young woman did back in the mid-19th century in New England, Miss Foley traveled to Lowell, MA to work in the textile mills as a mill girl...
, Florence Freeman, and Vinnie Ream
Vinnie Ream
Lavinia Ellen Ream Hoxie was an American sculptor. Her most famous work was the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.-Early life:...
.
She was devoted for 25 years to Lady Ashburton, widow of Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (died 1864). She was born Louisa Caroline Stewart-Mackenzie, youngest daughter of James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie
James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie
James Alexander Stewart-Mackenzie , was a Scottish politician and British colonial administrator.Born James Alexander Stewart, the son of Vice Admiral Keith Stewart , he assumed the surname Stewart-Mackenzie after his marriage on 21 May 1817 to Mary Elizabeth Frederica Mackenzie , daughter...
, and had one daughter, the Hon. Mary Florence ("Maisie"), born 1860 in London.
Hosmer died at Watertown, Massachusetts
Watertown, Massachusetts
The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...
, on February 21, 1908.
Mount Hosmer
Mount Hosmer (Iowa)
Mount Hosmer is a bluff overlooking Lansing, Iowa. It is located directly adjacent to the Upper Mississippi River and offers a panoramic view of the river, including the Black Hawk Bridge. Mount Hosmer rises 450 feet above downtown Lansing....
, near Lansing, Iowa
Lansing, Iowa
Lansing is a city in Lansing Township, Allamakee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,012 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lansing's longitude and latitude coordinatesin decimal form are 43.361525, -91.223378...
is named after Hosmer, the result a race to the top that she won as a youth.
Selected works
- Daphne and Medusa, ideal heads (1853)
- Puck (1855), a spirited and graceful conception which she copied for the prince of WalesPrince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
, the duke of HamiltonDuke of HamiltonDuke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that Peerage , and as such its holder is the Premier Peer of Scotland, as well as being head of both the House of Hamilton and the House of Douglas...
and others - Oenone (1855), her first life-sized figure, now in the Saint Louis Art MuseumSaint Louis Art MuseumThe Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the principal U.S. art museums, visited by up to a half million people every year. Admission is free through a subsidy from the cultural tax district for St. Louis City and County.Located in Forest Park in St...
- Beatrice CenciBeatrice CenciBeatrice Cenci was an Italian noblewoman. She is famous as the protagonist in a lurid murder trial in Rome....
(1857), for the St. Louis Mercantile LibrarySt. Louis Mercantile LibraryThe St. Louis Mercantile Library, founded in 1846 in St. Louis, Missouri, was originally established as a subscription library, and is the oldest extant library west of the Mississippi River. Since 1998 the library has been housed at the University of Missouri-St. Louis... - Zenobia in Chains (1859), owned by the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CaliforniaPasadena, CaliforniaPasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
- A Sleeping Faun (1867) is now being displayed at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Another version is in Iveagh House, Dublin, see Homan Potterton, 'An American Sculpture at the Dublin Exhibition of 1865: Hariet Hosmer's Sleeping Faun, The Arts in Ireland Autumn 1973.
- A Waking Faun; a bronze statue of Thomas H. BentonThomas Hart Benton (senator)Thomas Hart Benton , nicknamed "Old Bullion", was a U.S. Senator from Missouri and a staunch advocate of westward expansion of the United States. He served in the Senate from 1821 to 1851, becoming the first member of that body to serve five terms...
(1868) for Lafayette ParkLafayette Square, St. LouisLafayette Square is a neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri that is bounded on the north by Chouteau Avenue, on the south by Interstate 44, on the east by Truman Parkway and on the west by South Jefferson Avenue. It surrounds Lafayette Park, which is the city's oldest public park, created by...
, St Louis - Bronze gates for the Earl of Brownlow's art gallery at Ashridge Hall
- A siren fountain for Lady Marian Alford
- An alternate Emancipation MemorialEmancipation MemorialThe Emancipation Memorial, also known as the Freedman’s Memorial or the Emancipation Group, and sometimes referred to as the "Lincoln Memorial" before the present more prominent so-named memorial was built, is a monument in Lincoln Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C.Designed...
-- designed but not constructed - Statues of the queen of Naples as the heroine of Gaeta, and of Queen Isabella of Spain for the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893,
"The Mermaid's Cradle", Bronze, Fountain Square, Larchmont, NY
A book of poetry, "Waking Stone: Inventions on the Life Of Harriet Hosmer," by Carole Simmons Oles, was published in 2006.
Further reading
- Charles Colbert. "Harriet Hosmer and Spiritualism." American Art, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 28-49
External links
- The Winterthur Library Overview of an archival collection on Harriet Hosmer.
- Hosmer, Harriet; Carr, Cornelia. Harriet Hosmer letters and memories (1913) (Internet Archives).
- Artcyclopedia entry for Harriet Hosmer
- Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, 1830-1908. A Finding Aid. Watertown Free Public Library, Watertown, MA 2008