One of the nineteenth century’s most accomplished female artists, Hosmer received a progressive education at a boarding school in Lenox, Massachusetts, where her mentors encouraged her to seek a way of life not bound by then current conventions of womanhood. She began studying sculpture in the United States but moved to Rome in 1852 to advance her education, becoming the first American woman sculptor to do so. There, she studied with England’s leading Neoclassical sculptor, John Gibson. By the mid-1850s Hosmer’s work was received warmly by critics, and she became a colorful figure in American and European artistic circles, known for her unorthodox lifestyle. In a testimonial to her own independence, Hosmer remarked in 1868, “I honor every woman who has strength enough to step outside the beaten path when she feels that her walk lies in another; strength enough to stand up and be laughed at, if necessary.”