Four Centuries of the world's finest artists
from our collection to yours

Thank you for visiting...

Click here for HOT DEALS | Click here for our NO RESERVE AUCTIONS

Additional notes:
This is not a modern print. This impression is more than 140 years old. The strike is crisp and the lines are sharp. 
Extra Information:The original marble sculpture of ‘Puck’, the mischievous sprite of Shakespeare's (1564 - 1616) 'A Midsummer Night’s Dream', was the American artist Harriet Hosmer's most popular work. Hosmer was one of the most successful female artists of the 19th century. Born in Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1830, she spent most of her life living and working in Rome. There she was a leading figure in an important group of women artists who expressed their feminist and anti-slavery views in the neoclassical sculptures they produced.
may One goal of feminist art historians has been to expose the difficulties faced by women artists. Avoiding conventional female roles, demanding access to instruction, ignoring the ridicule of male colleagues, women artists have been seen as fighters against discrimination, as independents and rebels. The story of Harriet Hosmer, imbued as it is with determination, indifference to the opinions of others, and critical and financial success, has become a classic.
Encouraged by her father to pursue physical exercise after her mother and siblings died of tuberculosis, Hosmer had an active childhood in Massachusetts. Sent to a progressive school that fostered independence and provided her with creative female role models, she became determined to sculpt. On her way to achieving this goal, she studied human anatomy, a necessity for sculptors and a subject usually forbidden to women. She sailed for Rome in 1852 and gained entrance to the studio of the English sculptor John Gibson, where she attracted the patronage of affluent tourists.
Hosmer was not the only female sculptor in Rome at this time. She was one of a group of American women sculptors, dubbed the "White Marmorean Flock" by Henry James, who had gathered in Italy to seek artistic companionship, liberal working conditions, abundant examples of classical statuary, and access to skilled artisans and sources of marble.
Hosmer generally concentrated on dignified heroines of history and literature, but Puck provided a lucrative alternative. She produced over thirty replicas of her interpretation of this mischievous fairy known in folklore since the Middle Ages and made famous in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream. Buyers included England's Prince of Wales. The smooth white surface and the idealized form of the child reflect Hosmer's neoclassical bias, even in depicting such a fanciful subject.
Artist Biography:
  John "Harriet Hosmer (1830–1908) was celebrated as one of the country's most respected artists, credited with opening the field of sculpture to women and cited as a model of female ability and American refinement. In this biographical study, Kate Culkin explores Hosmer's life and work and places her in the context of a notable group of expatriate writers and artists who gathered in Rome in the mid-nineteenth century. 
In 1852 Hosmer moved from Boston to Rome, where she shared a house with actress Charlotte Cushman and soon formed close friendships with such prominent expatriates as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and fellow sculptors John Gibson, Emma Stebbins, and William Wetmore Story. References to Hosmer or characters inspired by her appear in the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, and Kate Field among others. Culkin argues that Hosmer's success was made possible by her extensive network of supporters, including her famous friends, boosters of American gentility, and women's rights advocates. This unlikely coalition, along with her talent, ambition, and careful maintenance of her public profile, ultimately brought her great acclaim. Culkin also addresses Hosmer's critique of women's position in nineteenth-century culture through her sculpture, women's rights advocates' use of high art to promote their cause, the role Hosmer's relationships with women played in her life and success, and the complex position a female artist occupied within a country increasingly interested in proving its gentility."

Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity and is Fully Guaranteed to be Certified as Described

Framing

Any framing included in a listing is double matted and framed in a solid wood moulding. We can also frame any pieces not listed as such. Please contact us for pricing. We are usually half the price of a regular framer.

Shipping

Packages are shipped the next business day after confirmed payment is received. If you are making multiple purchases, please request an invoice so that we may combine shipping charges for you.

Guarantee

We guarantee all our listings to be 100% as described

Returns

Returns are accepted up to fourteen days after receiving your purchase. Buyer accepts responsibility for any additional shipping charges.

| Click here for HOT DEALS | Click here for our NO RESERVE AUCTIONS |