CC0 · no rights reserved
Puck
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Harriet Hosmer created Puck out of financial necessity when her father could no longer support her in Rome. Literary themes were popular in the nineteenth century, and Hosmer chose the mischievous but adorable fairy from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck---or “my son,” as Hosmer called him---was an instant success with the aristocracy, including Albert Edward, the Prince of Wales and the crown princess of Germany, who, upon seeing the work, remarked, “Oh, Miss Hosmer, you have such talent for toes!”
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit linePuck. modeled 1854, carved 1856. Harriet Hosmer, born Watertown, MA 1830-died Watertown, MA 1908. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. George Merrill. CC0.
