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Daphne (work of art)

Artwork Info

Created
Modeled 1853, carved later
Nationality
American
Birth/Death
1830-1908
Dimensions
28 1/4 x 19 3/4 x 12 1/2 inches (71.7 x 52 x 31.8 centimeters)

Credit

Purchased with funds provided by the Calvin and Marisa Allen Foundation, Anne Allen Cheatham, and Lizzie Cheatham McNairy and Charlie McNairy on behalf of the Matrons of the Arts Initiative, and by the bequest of Carlyle Adams

Object Number
2017.10
Culture
American
Classification
Sculpture
Department
American to 1910

Key Ideas about this Work of Art

  • This is a bust, or sculpture of a person’s head, neck, shoulders, and chest. It was sculpted in marble, in the Neoclassical style. This style was inspired by ancient Greek and Roman art. 
  • In Greek mythology Daphne was a water spirit and the daughter of a river god. The sun god Apollo fell in love with her and chased her. In an effort to escape from Apollo, Daphne prayed to her father and was transformed into a laurel tree. This sculpture depicts Daphne the moment before she was covered in laurel leaves.
  • Harriet Goodhue Hosmer sculpted Daphne as her first independent work.
  • Hosmer grew up practicing outdoor sports like canoeing and horseback riding, and her father encouraged her interest in art. She studied human anatomy (which was usually forbidden for women at that time) in order to become a sculptor. She later joined a colony of American artists in Rome and had a successful art career.

Learn More

In Greek mythology Daphne was the daughter of a river god. Fleeing the unwanted advances of Apollo, she appealed to her father, who transformed her into a laurel tree. Harriet Hosmer depicts the young nymph serenely accepting her fate, or, as the artist put it in a letter, “just sinking away into the laurel leaves.” 

This bust is the first independent work by Hosmer and demonstrates the neoclassical style she cultivated in Rome, where she was a prominent female figure in an expatriate colony of American writers and artists.



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Images

  • A white marble sculpture of a female figure’s head, neck, shoulders, and chest. Her hair is tied back into a bun, and she is gazing downward. A wreath of laurel leaves surrounds her bare chest.

    Daphne

    marble bust sculpture

  • A white marble sculpture of a female figure’s head, neck, shoulders, and chest. Her hair is tied back into a bun, and she is gazing downward. A wreath of laurel leaves surrounds her bare chest.

    Daphne

  • A white marble sculpture of a female figure’s head, neck, shoulders, and chest. Her hair is tied back into a bun, and she is gazing downward. A wreath of laurel leaves surrounds her bare chest.

    Daphne