Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr.

Harriet Hosmer

1866

The American artist Harriet Hosmer spent much of her career in Rome, where she specialized in neoclassical sculpture, becoming one of the most celebrated women artists of the nineteenth century. This portrait pays homage to Wayman Crow, a founder of Washington University and the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts (now the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum) as well as an important benefactor of the artist. Crow was introduced to Hosmer by one of his daughters, who was Hosmer’s close friend; he played a pivotal role early in her career by helping her get admitted as the first woman to study anatomy at what would become the Washington University School of Medicine, and he remained one of her most loyal patrons. In this sculpture Hosmer fashioned his likeness in a highly idealized manner that recalls a bust of an ancient philosopher. The work was bestowed upon Crow at the University’s 1868 commencement ceremony, with “A Tribute of Gratitude” inscribed on it. Hosmer’s first original sculpture that she created in Rome, Daphne (1854) (WU 579), was also given by the artist to the Crow family.

Artist Harriet Hosmer (American, 1830–1908)
Title Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr.
Date 1866
Medium Carrara marble
Dimensions unframed | 25 x 14 3/4 x 10 3/4 in.
Credit line Gift of the heirs of Wayman Crow, Sr., 1868
Object number WU 2061

Technique carving
Work type sculpture

Real / Radical / Psychological: The Collection on Display
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/09/2016 - 01/15/2017

Harriet Hosmer
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 05/02/2008 - 07/21/2008

Collecting Patterns
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 09/05/2003 - 12/07/2003

Beginnings: The Taste of the Founders
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 01/21/2000 - 03/19/2000

1868
Wayman, Sr. Crow

Inscription [on front, chiseled into stone:] WAYMAN CROW

Inscription [on side, chiseled into stone:] ROME MDCCCLXVI / A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE

Inscription [on other side, chiseled into stone:] HARRIET HOSMER / SCULPT.

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