Harriet Hosmer. Harriet Goodhue Hosmer was a neoclassical sculptor, considered the most distinguished female sculptor in America during the 19th century.
She is known as the first female professional sculptor. Among other technical innovations, she pioneered a process for turning limestone into marble.
Hosmer once lived in an expatriate colony in Rome, befriending many prominent writers and artists. She was a cousin of poet William H. C. Hosmer and tragic actress Jean Hosmer.
Harriet Hosmer was born on October 9, 1830 at Watertown, Massachusetts, and completed a course of study at Sedgewick School in Lenox, Massachusetts. Her mother and three siblings died during her childhood.
She was a delicate child, and was encouraged by her father, physician Hiram Hosmer, to pursue a course of physical training by which she became expert in rowing, skating, and riding. He also encouraged her artistic passion. She traveled alone in the wilderness of the western United States, and visited the Dakota Indians. She showed an early aptitude for modeling, and studied anatomy with her father. Through the influence of family friend Wayman Crow she attended the anatomical instruction of Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell at the Missouri Medical College. She then studied in Boston and practiced modeling at home until November 1852, when, with her father and her friend Charlotte Cushman, she went to Rome, where from 1853 to 18