Harriet Hosmer

Harriet Hosmer American sculptor was born in Watertown Massachusetts, and is credited with opening the field of sculpture to women during the repressive Victorian era. She had to overcome gender prejudice and skepticism during the early years of her career, yet she persevered and went on to become one of America's most respected artists. Hosmer was one of a notable group of expatriate writers and artists who gathered in Rome in the mid-nineteenth century and she had close friendships with Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and fellow sculptors John Gibson, Emma Stebbins, Edmonia Lewis and William Wetmore Story. Hosmer inspired many by her classicized themes of female heroines such as Zenobia Queen of Palmyra and Beatrice Cenci. Though her many contributions and accomplishments had been overlooked and obscured by mainstream art history for years, Hosmer is now celebrated as a gifted sculptor and credited as having opened an important critique of women's position in nineteenth-century culture through her sculpture