Hooked on Hosmer

By Meredith Deliso

Do you know who Harriet Hosmer is?

Neither did Patricia Cronin. Which surprised the Brooklyn college art professor, as Hosmer was one of the most celebrated sculptors in her day.

During the 19th century, the American lived and worked in Italy with other noted ex-pats like George Eliot, George Sands and Nathaniel Hawthorne, commissioned to create sculptures depicting such historical, mythological and literary figures as Zenobia, Medusa and Puck.

“The more I found out, the more fascinating she was,” said Cronin, who came across the artist while doing research, shocked to find she had never heard of her. “She was in a circle of very well-known writers and artists. She was the life of every party. Why is this person forgotten if she was so famous in her day?”

Finding a lack of thorough scholarship on Hosmer, it was then that Cronin decided to give the artist her due, compiling the definitive Hosmer catalogue raisonné (the publication that comprehensively lists an artist’s complete works).

For the past few years, Cronin, a Boreum Hill resident with a studio in Gowanus and a professor in the art department at Brooklyn College (from which she also received her MFA nearly 20 years ago), has been replicating all of Hosmer’s pieces, working in watercolor, a medium that mimics the luminosity of marble the sculptor worked with. In all, her book contains 62 pieces.

From June 5 till the beginning of next year, a selection of those pieces work will be on display in a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum called “Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found,” in the Herstory Gallery and Forum of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

The Museum show marks the first time these paintings, for which Cronin has won the Rome Prize in 2007, will be on public view, with about half – 28 – selected for the exhibition. Cronin chose the selections to represent a variety of the work Hosmer created.

“If I’m trying to make the case for what a great artist she was, I needed to show the breadth and whole scope of her work,” said Cronin, who selected full-figured statues, mythological pieces and busts for the Museum show. “If I just picked all the same kind of work, I think it would be misleading.”

While Cronin created 62 paintings, a number of sculptures Hosmer created were not photographed, their existence known only through written references. To have a fully complete catalogue raisonné, Cronin has made a number of watercolors she calls “ghosts” – ethereal images of these unrecorded sculptures to represent, which will contrast effectively with the fully-realized watercolors of the known sculptures.

“It was a great way to talk about her ‘missing’ or ‘lost’ career,” said Cronin. “It’s not just one statue missing but a whole career.”

As to where Hosmer went, Cronin blames the decreasing popularity of neoclassical art at the time, and the rise of Paris at the turn of the century as an art center as opposed to Florence, though it is an issue she finds that can easily speak to female artists working today.

“Doing a reclamation-type project like I’m doing, the whole point is that she was so well-known, so well-respected in her time. It’s not like I found somebody that nobody knew and am saying this was an important artist. This was the most important artist in her day and she’s forgotten,” said Cronin. “It’s a great way to talk about the plight of being a woman artist. Unfortunately not that much has changed. But it won’t stop me.”

Patricia Cronin: “Harriet Hosmer, Lost and Found,” will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway) in the Herstory Gallery and Forum of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, 4th Floor, from June 5 to July 24. For more information, call 718-638-5000.