Harriet Hosmer: A Cultural Biography

Chapter Five: “Female Sculptors Have Ceased to Be a Novelty”

95 chapter five “Female Sculptors Have Ceased to Be a Novelty” The second half of the 1860s marked a critical period of readjustment for Harriet. As a result of the Zenobia accusation she had begun to realize the dangers of allowing her work to appear too political. The uncertain fate of the Benton statue in the wake of the Civil War reinforced this lesson. Her home life was in flux as she faced the reality of the relationship between Charlotte Cushman and Emma Stebbins and how it influenced her professional as well as her personal life. Harriet also had to confront competition from other female artists who gathered in Rome. At the age of thirty-four, the Yankee girl was learning she must find new avenues of support and ways to make herself stand out. When the artist arrived in 1852,she was the only American woman sculptor working in Rome. (Sarah Fisher Clampitt Ames had moved there briefly in 1848, but had returned to the United States with her husband, the painter Joseph Alexander Ames, the same year.)1 Harriet’s success, along with the growth of interest in the arts in the United States,soon inspired several other females to join her. She, of course, shared her home with Emma Stebbins. Louisa Lander had arrived in Italy in 1855, although she left by 1860, as the rumors circulated about her“moral character.”2 Margaret Foley began working in Rome in 1860.After a year in Florence, Florence Freeman appeared in 1862, like Harriet on the invitation of Charlotte Cushman. Edmonia Lewis moved to Rome in 1865. Lydia Maria Child had befriended Lewis, who was part African American and part Chippewa,in Boston,and at Child’s request Harriet helped Lewis establish a studio in Italy. Anne Whitney (who, like Harriet, was from Watertown), would arrive in 1867. Blanche Nevin also moved to Italy, although she studied primarily in Venice.3 Chapter Five 96 Although these artists’ lives and work differed in important ways, the press coverage tended to lump them together. Child went so far as to claim that “the career which she [Harriet] opened has become so thronged with competitors that female sculptors have ceased to be a novelty.”4 The female artists were friendly with one another, and many lived on Via Gregoriana. Harriet had a flirtation with Florence Freeman; although Cushman claimed Harriet threw her over for Mary Crow, the end of the romance did not signify the end of the friendship, as Freeman promoted Harriet’s planned contribution to the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.5 In her letters Harriet addressed Anne Whitney as“Sister,”and Whitney’s correspondence documents their frequent dinners and social events.6 Despite their bonds, however,the women also competed for patrons,commissions,and publicity.7 Lewis, in addition, faced racism and condescension even from those in the community who purported to support her.8 In late 1864, Harriet had a elegant new studio constructed, perhaps as a status symbol to announce to her competitors that she was the premiere female sculptor in Rome.She placed a replica of the Fountain of the Siren in the bucolic garden and decorated the studio with many of her pieces,including a replica of Beatrice Cenci. The artist bragged,“I may without exaggeration or embellishment say there will be no studio in Rome which can hold a candle to it.”9 Between Harriet and Stebbins the tension was personal as well as professional . Cushman’s devotion to another sculptor surely hurt Harriet, who had grown used to Cushman’s attention and support.The rivalry intensified after the Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution in the fall of 1859 to install a statue of Horace Mann in front of the State House in Boston. A competition was held to award the commission, and Harriet lobbied hard to win it, writing to Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, Mann’s sister-in-law, to ask for her endorsement.10 The professional ramifications of Harriet’s changing personal relationships became clear when Cushman backed Stebbins in the competition and courted Mann’s widow, Mary Peabody Mann, by promising to help raise money for the work through a dramatic reading of a eulogy of Horace Mann. In the summer of 1861 Stebbins emerged victorious.11 By the end of the year,Stebbins also received a commission for a statue of Commodore Perry for NewYork’s Central Park, which was never completed, and was in negotiations to create Betheseda Fountain for the...