Patricia Cronin

Harriet Hosmer: Lost and Found
A Catalogue Raisonne´ Series

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn NY
June 5, 2009 - January 24, 2010

MEDUSA, WATERCOLOR ON PAPER, 15 X 12 INCHES, 2006 / 2007

While contemplating my own death when working on Memorial To A Marriage, I discovered someone else’s life – American sculptor Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908).

This series combines hand painted images with art historical research to create a document that reveals the complexities of Hosmer’s career, reputation, and legacy. Hosmer moved to Rome in 1852 and lived among a lively community of British and American artists and writers and a circle of learned and well-to-do “independent women.” She had an important career, was praised by critics, won competitive commissions, and earned enormous sums for her Neo-classical marble sculptures. In this unique volume, I’ve pieced together a conceptual framework to examine the histories of art and women at the intersection of the ivory tower and the marketplace in the form of the catalogue raisonne´.

Selected Works