Harriet Hosmer
Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr.
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.
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Artist
Harriet Hosmer
(American, 1830–1908)
- Title Portrait of Wayman Crow, Sr.
- Date 1866
- Medium Carrara marble
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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
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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