She did every stroke of the work with her own small hands, except knocking off the corners of the block of marble. She employed a man to do that; but as he was unused to work for sculptors, she did not venture to have him approach within several inches of the surface she intended to cut. Slight girl as she was, she wielded for eight or ten hours a day, a leaden mallet weighing four pounds and a half. Had it not been for the strength and flexibility of muscle acquired by rowing and other athletic exercises, such arduous labor would have been impossible. I expected to see skilful workmanship; but I was not
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Height; visited the Dacotah Indians, smoking the pipe of peace with the chief, which was afterwards preserved in “the old house at home ;” and explored the lead mines at Dubuque, narrowly escaping a fatal accident there, which would have left her friends in ignorance of her fate; for they did not know where the spirit of adventure had led her; and her arrival at St. Louis again was the relief of their anxiety.
These happy months over, she returned to her father's house and her art. Ever ready to indulge and facilitate her purpose, Dr. Hosmer fitted up a small studio for her convenience in — his garden, which she called facetiously her shop.
There she wrought out various contrivances of mechanical ingenuity, and produced her first work in marble,--a reduced copy of Canova's bust of Napoleon, for her father.
The labor was performed by her own hands, that she might be practically familiar with every part of the process.
The likeness and workmanship are both good.
Soon afterwards she commenced Hesper,--her first original and ideal work.
Mrs. Child, who saw it in the garden studio in the summer of 1852, by Dr. Hosmer's invitation, gives the following account of its execution and description, which were published in the “New York Tribune,” under the caption, “A New star in the Arts:” --
S. M. Betts and Company. Hartford, Conn. 1871.
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