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Sculpture

Bust of a Woman

1 of 38

Type: Sculpture(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1869
Accession number: 2008.6
Maker: William Wetmore Story(Opens in new tab) (American, 1819–1895)
Dimensions: 27 3/4 × 18 × 9 1/4 in. (70.5 × 45.7 × 23.5 cm.)
Medium: marble
Credit: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Purchased with funds from the Art Collectors' Council and the Virginia Steele Scott Acquisition fund for American Art
Department: American Art

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Bust of a Woman exhibits William Wetmore Story's reliance on classical Greek models and characteristic use of surface detail. The beautifully carved hair, jewelry, costume, and individualized features indicate that this is a portrait, although the identity of the sitter is not known. She may have been one of Story's many American or British patrons; he left us a clue to her name by carving the initials "G. C." on her locket.
Story's father, Joseph Story, was a Supreme Court justice. William followed his father into law after graduating from Harvard in 1840. While in law school, however, Story began dabbling in art, and in 1846 the citizens of Boston and Cambridge commissioned him to sculpt a memorial to his father. To create the monument, Story traveled Rome to study examples of classical and Renaissance sculptures. He fell in love with the city and moved there more or less permanently in 1848, when he embarked on his career as a sculptor.

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Bust of a Woman

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