DAPHNE By Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Daphne is Hosmers first fully professional sculpture or, as she once claimed, my first child. Rather than sculpt a full figure, she opted sensibly for a relatively straightforward type: a bust portrait of an idealized young woman. Though such busts have a long tradition in Western art, Hosmer was most immediately influenced by fellow American expatriate Hiram Powers and his extremely popular bust of Roman goddess Proserpine. Carved ten years before Daphne, Proserpine was one of Powers greatest commercial successes with more than 175 marble and plaster replicas recorded. A young sculptor of Hosmers ambition would have to have been impressed. In Greek mythology Daphne was a naiad, a water nymph, and the daughter of a river god. Though there are numerous versions of the story of Daphne and Apollo, Hosmer likely drew inspiration from the account in the Metamorphoses of the Roman poet Ovid. In brief, Daphne becomes the unwanted object of affection for the god Apollo who pursues her relentlessly.
