Subscribe"During the spring of 1858, Nathaniel Hawthorne was visiting John Gibson's studio and met Harriet, where they quickly became friends. Hawthorne and his family would return to visit Harriet often. When they met, Harriet was working on a sculpture titled "Zenobia in Chains". Hawthorne mentions this in the preface of 'The Marble Faun'.
Harriet would take her sculpture, 'Zenobia in Chains', to New York in the summer of 1864. While it was on display, it was purchased by Almon Griswold. Harriet would return to Rome in November of that year. Griswold would exhibit 'Zenobia in Chains' at the Jenks Art Gallery in Boston. This exhibition drew a record-breaking crowd.
In the latter part of 1864, Harriet's work came under fire. Many art critics as well as male sculptors claimed that her sculptures were actually created by her male assistants. Harriet responded by filing a libel suit against those who made the claims and in her defense she wrote a step-by-step article for the magazine 'The Atlantic Monthly'. Her article titled 'The Process of Sculpture', gave an in depth and very detailed description of the sculptural process, and was used by many marble sculptors who ran large studios to dispel the claims that Harriet did not do her own work. Coming to her defense, John Gibson told the art world that when Harriet was his student, people often asked if he was doing the sculptures and letting her put her name on them."
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Telling us what the question is, exactly, might help, too.
posted by interrobang at 5:46 PM on July 27, 2006