Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue

Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue (hŏz`mər), 1830–1908, American sculptor, b. Watertown, Mass. She lived chiefly in Rome, where she produced graceful statues very popular in her day. Of her spirited Puck 30 copies were made. Other works are The Sleeping Faun, The Waking Faun, and Beatrice Cenci (St. Louis Mercantile Library); Zenobia (Metropolitan Mus.); and a statue of Senator Thomas H. Benton (St. Louis).

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Hosmer, Harriet Goodhue (1830–1908) sculptor; born in Watertown, Mass. Raised as a tomboy by her father, she attended school in Lenox, Mass., where she made lifelong friends who encouraged her to study sculpture and anatomy. She lived and worked in Italy and England (1852–1900), creating sentimental works—such as Puck (1856) and Zenobia (1862). She kept a large studio of stonecutters busy with commissions from American, English, and European patrons, and was the first and most successful American female sculptor of her era. She returned to Watertown, Mass., in 1900.