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When Harriet Met St. Louis
(by Kara Krekeler - June 11, 2008)
On June 13 and 14, St. Louis will celebrate one of Watertown, Mass.’s own.
That weekend, Washington University, the Missouri History Museum, the St. Louis Art Museum, the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Lafayette Park Conservancy will pay tribute to 19th-century sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who left her mark on St. Louis, despite her East Coast roots.
The two-day event is designed to lead visitors to locations throughout the St. Louis area where they can learn about Hosmer and see her sculptures on display.
“The people of Massachusetts probably wonder why we’re doing something in her honor,” said Julie Dunn Morton, curator of fine arts at the Mercantile Library. “We’re not her hometown, but she spent enough time here and her biggest patrons were here” and she deserves a St. Louis-based event in her honor.
Indeed, several of Hosmer’s sculptures reside in St. Louis, including Beatrice Cenci (Hosmer’s “masterpiece,” according to Morton) at the Mercantile Library and the statue of Thomas Hart Benton in Lafayette Park. Installed 10 years after Benton’s death, the statue of the popular politician was the first public monument in the state of Missouri.
It was that notable statue that initiated the upcoming weekend of events. Last year, the Lafayette Park Conservancy — the board that oversees the maintenance and master plan of Lafayette Park — noted that the Benton statue was succumbing to the wear and tear associated with more than a century of weather and took it upon themselves to raise the money to restore the monument.
But when the LPC realized that 2008 would be the 150th anniversary of Benton’s death, the 140th anniversary of the statue’s installation and the 100th anniversary of Hosmer’s death, the conservancy’s members felt that it was a prime opportunity to recognize the Benton statue’s sculptor, said LPC member Carolyn Willmore.
“The Benton statue is the first public monument in the state of Missouri, and it’s quite outstanding that it was created by a woman. We’re just trying to get knowledge out about Harriet Hosmer,” Willmore said.
Girls will be boys?
Born in Watertown, Mass., in 1830, Hosmer was raised by her father, who let his daughter run free throughout much of her childhood, riding her horse around town and pulling pranks on Watertown citizens, said Elizabeth Pickard, gallery-theater and program coordinator for the Missouri History Museum and creator of a one-woman short play about Hosmer.
“She’d do the sort of pranks that most people would usually dismiss as ‘boys will be boys,’ but here was this little girl doing them,” Pickard said.
That kind of behavior continued well into Hosmer’s adulthood. After studying at an elite women’s school in Massachusetts, Hosmer used her close relationship with the family of Washington University co-founder Wayman Crow to secure a place studying anatomy at the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis, a privilege usually denied to women. Crow later became one of Hosmer’s biggest supporters, using his influence to get several of her sculptures placed in the metro area.
After wrapping up her studies in St. Louis, Hosmer headed to Rome in the hopes of securing an apprenticeship with a sculptor there. She ended up working with John Gibson, a well-respected English sculptor who didn’t often take apprentices.
“She had a photograph of her first sculpture and her anatomy degree. That’s what got her into Gibson’s studio,” Morton said, adding that the apprenticeship made Hosmer the first American woman to work on and study sculpture in Rome. “That’s the most significant thing about her career. Her art wasn’t all that influential itself, but it broke ground for American women.”
Pickard’s play begins during Hosmer’s apprenticeship in 1861, as the sculptor was beginning to receive more attention and commissions. During that time, several malicious rumors were circulating, most claiming that her sculptures were produced by Gibson and all linked to the fact that she was a woman in the field, Pickard said.
“She took the charges head on, which is remarkable for a mid-Victorian woman,” Pickard said.Yet Hosmer’s reaction to the rumors doesn’t mean she was a crusading feminist, Pickard said. More than once, Hosmer turned down requests to speak at feminist events, claiming they had nothing to do with her work.
“She really was, first and foremost, driven by her work. You tend to think of women in the 19th century as being genteel and subdued or a crusader like Susan B. Anthony. She wasn’t about a cause. [Hosmer] just wanted to be allowed to work,” Pickard said.
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