Puck
This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
Object Details
- Date
- modeled 1854, carved 1856
- Artist
- Harriet Hosmer, born Watertown, MA 1830-died Watertown, MA 1908
- Luce Center Label
- 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!”
- Luce Object Quote
- “I have another order for Puck; he has already brought me his weight in silver.” Harriet Hosmer, in Cornelia Crow Carr, ed., Harriet Hosmer: Letters and Memories, 1913
- Topic
- Fantasy\winged being
- Figure male\child\nude
- Literature\Shakespeare\Midsummer Night's Dream
- Literature\character\Puck
- Landscape\plant\mushroom
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. George Merrill
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Object number
- 1918.3.5
- Type
- Sculpture
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- 30 1/2 x 16 5/8 x 19 5/8 in. (77.5 x 42.1 x 49.9 cm.)
- Metadata Usage
- CC0
- Record ID
- saam_1918.3.5