History:
Lesbian sculptor, Harriet Hosmer emigrated to Rome from the United States at a young age to become part of a community of writers and artists, which also included a lesbian circle “independent women”. Her sculptures were based on marble and the quality of her surviving ones are extraordinary. Yet, most of her work was destroyed and last, most are only preserved in sketches.
She was raised as a boy by her father, a physician, in Watertown, Massachusetts. She lost her mother and siblings to tuberculosis and her father thought that the only way for her to survive was through many harsh exercise common to boys, so that she would be immune to the disease. Her father encouraged Hattie's interest in riding, shooting and also encouraged her artistic talents by allowing her to set up her first studio on the family property.
One of Hosmer's early works, Hesper, the Evening Star (1852), came to the attention of the Boston actress Charlotte Cushman, a lesbian who was famous for playing men's role. She was preparing to move to Rome and knowing that most American art schools either refused to admit women or charged them more in terms of tuition rather than men, Cushman convinced Hosmer's father to allow Harriet to move to Rome with her.
Most of Cushman's friends were lesbian women, and as the youngest, Hosmer quickly became a key figure in this world of creative and intellectual excitement. Sculptors Anne Whitney and Edmonia Lewis were to Hosmer considered as role models, and she quickly befriended literary figures such as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Outside of her work, she was an admitted flirt. She had a close relationship with her boarding school friend Cornelian Crow, who eventually became her biographer, but her most intense and intimate relationship was with Louisa Ashburton, a Scottish noblewoman. The two shared finances and wrote intimate letters in which Hosmer used the term "wedded wife" to refer to herself.
She was raised as a boy by her father, a physician, in Watertown, Massachusetts. She lost her mother and siblings to tuberculosis and her father thought that the only way for her to survive was through many harsh exercise common to boys, so that she would be immune to the disease. Her father encouraged Hattie's interest in riding, shooting and also encouraged her artistic talents by allowing her to set up her first studio on the family property.
One of Hosmer's early works, Hesper, the Evening Star (1852), came to the attention of the Boston actress Charlotte Cushman, a lesbian who was famous for playing men's role. She was preparing to move to Rome and knowing that most American art schools either refused to admit women or charged them more in terms of tuition rather than men, Cushman convinced Hosmer's father to allow Harriet to move to Rome with her.
Most of Cushman's friends were lesbian women, and as the youngest, Hosmer quickly became a key figure in this world of creative and intellectual excitement. Sculptors Anne Whitney and Edmonia Lewis were to Hosmer considered as role models, and she quickly befriended literary figures such as Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Outside of her work, she was an admitted flirt. She had a close relationship with her boarding school friend Cornelian Crow, who eventually became her biographer, but her most intense and intimate relationship was with Louisa Ashburton, a Scottish noblewoman. The two shared finances and wrote intimate letters in which Hosmer used the term "wedded wife" to refer to herself.
My opinion:
Harriet Hosmer intrigues me very much for a few reason which include the fact that she grew up being treated like a boy. This might be the reason she was a lesbian because she grew up her entire youth treated like she was a boy by her father and then after was cared for by Cushman who was a lesbian surrounded by a circle of other lebians. She might have seen this as just a complete normal thing to be, so I thought, people come to like things and dislike things depending on what they were told as they grew up. Parents who are against homosexuality will encourage their entourage and most likely their children to be against homosexuality as well, same for the opposite cases for parents for homosexuality.