Woman of the Century/Harriet G. Hosmer

HOSMER, Miss Harriet G., sculptor, born in Watertown, Mass., 9th October, 1830. Her father was a physician. Her mother and sister died of consumption, and Harriet was led to live an outdoor life. Her genius for modeling in clay showed itself in her youth, when in a clay-pit near her home she spent her time in modeling horses, dogs and other forms. She received a fair education and took lessons in art in Boston. With her father she studied anatomy, and afterward went to St. Louis, Mo., where she took a course of study in the medical college. In 1851 she executed her first important work, an ideal head of "Hesper." In 1852 she went to Rome, Italy, with her father and her friend, Charlotte Cushman There she was a pupil with Gibson. She at once produced two ideal heads, "Daphne" and "Medusa," which were exhibited in Boston in 1853. In 1855 she produced her first full-length marble figure, "Œnone." Her other productions include "Will-o-the-Wisp," HARRIET G. HOSMER, "Puck," "Sleeping Faun." "Waking Faun," "Zenobia," a statue of Marie Sophia, Queen of the Sicilies, and other famous figures. Her "Beatrice Cenci" and her bronze statue of Thomas H. Benton are both in St. Louis, Ma Miss Hosmer's work has received the highest favor. Her commissions have brought her fortune as well as fame. Among her European patrons are the Prince of Wales, the church authorities in Rome, Lady Marian Alford, Earl Brownlow and others. Most of her best work is owned in St. Louis, where she has spent much of her time. Besides her talent in sculpture. Miss Hosmer has shown marked talent in poetical composition and in prose articles on sculpture, which she has treated in a philosophical way in the "Atlantic Monthly." Her works are numerous, and each one is an evidence of her greatness as a sculptor. She executed a statue of Queen Isabella for the Columbian Exposition.