Did Harriet Hosmer carve her own marbles, or did she have them done by stonecutters? Dear Visitor,
Dear Joan of Art,
Did Harriet Hosmer carve her own marbles, or did she have them done by stonecutters? Dear Visitor,
You refer to a common practice among sculptors of the nineteenth century. They often modeled the work in clay, and craftspeople copied it in marble. This issue about Hosmer's work is summarized in the entry on Hosmer in American Women Sculptors by Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein (Boston: G. K. Hall, 1996), a book you can probably find through your local library.
"Although Zenobia brought Hosmer's career to a peak in the United States, the slander against her in the British press continued to enrage her. In an 1863 issue of The Queen, an irresponsible journalist had written of 'the meretricious charms of Zenobia … said to be by Miss Hosmer but really executed by an Italian workman at Rome.' This libel was repeated in other publications.
"For years Hosmer had known that certain jealous male artists in Rome were spreading rumors about her, but she was aghast to find such accusations in print. Recognizing that not only her own career but the position of all creative women was at stake, Hosmer rallied support among her friends in the art world and decided to sue for libel.…
"Defending her in the Art Journal, John Gibson pointed out that when Hosmer was his student, people said that he did her work.
"Now that she was in her own studio, detractors were claiming that her work was done by Italian assistants. William Wetmore Story attested that he had personally watched Hosmer at work on the statue. Although her assistant, Signor Nucchi, had put the irons and clay mass to scale from her sketch, she had modeled the work from her own original maquette in the same manner as all the other sculptors in Rome. Hosmer … forced the Art Journal and The Queen to print retractions.
"The artist's energy was diverted to her self defense for a long time. She published a poem satirizing the chauvinism of male artists, 'The Doleful Ditty of the Roman Caffe Greco,' in the New York Evening Post, in the summer of 1864. She wrote 'The Process of Sculpture' for the Atlantic Monthly, December 1864. Drawing a distinction between the creative artist who models the work in clay and the craftsman who merely copies it in marble (thus freeing the artist for more creative work), she explained that all sculptors of her time worked this way, adding bitterly: 'I am quite persuaded … that had Thorwaldsen and Vogelberg been women … we should long since have heard the great merit of their works attributed to the skill of their workmen.' "
I hope this information is helpful.
Sincerely,
Joan of Art
Pictured: Harriet Hosmer, 1830–1908, Will o' the Wisp, modeled 1858, marble, 32 1/2 x 16 3/4 x 17 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.