VAM galleries including this work:
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This image shows the marble statue that stood in the Fayette County, Kentucky courthouse before it was destroyed when the courthouse burned on May 14, 1897. Only the woman’s right hand and a piece of the cording from Cupid’s quiver survived; they are now encased at the University of Kentucky’s Special Collections and Archives. Woman Triumphant is considered the greatest masterpiece by one of Kentucky’s most noted artists of the 19th century. Although the title of the sculpture may seem to suggest a women’s rights theme, it more likely refers to an idealized Victorian view of women.

About the Artist

Joel Tanner Hart was born near Winchester in Central Kentucky on February 10, 1810. As a young man, he was apprenticed to a stone cutter in nearby Lexington, where he created headstones and monuments. He began to sculpt busts in clay and marble and by the 1840s had created busts and sculpture of such prominent subjects as Andrew Jackson, Cassius Marcellus Clay, and Henry Clay. In 1849, Hart went to Italy to transfer plaster molds of a full-length sculpture of Henry Clay into marble; he lived there the rest of his life.

In the course of his work, Hart invented an apparatus for mechanically modeling the outline of a head from life. A perforated metallic shell was fitted around the head, with a space left in between. Then pins were stuck through the perforations. Each pin was pushed inward until it just touched the head and fastened in place. The shell was then removed and filled with plaster, which was cut away until the points of the pins were reached, thus forming a rough mold.

Hart considered Woman Triumphant his “life’s dream.” He died before it was completed, and the statue was finished by George Saul, an English sculptor and former pupil of Hart’s.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: Who is shown in this work? What do you think the woman is going to do with the arrow in her hand? What do you think the title of this work means? What was the ideal of womanhood in Victorian times, and how does it compare to the ideal of womanhood today? How does the artist use the elements of art and principles of design to express his idea of “woman triumphant”?

Compare this work to sculptures Hart created of prominent 19th-century men, like the Henry Clay example listed in the links below.

Activities: Design a sculpture representing a modern idea of “woman triumphant.”

Choose a prominent contemporary figure and design a bust or sculpture honoring her/him.

Research Greek mythology and Cupid. Reenact a story about Cupid and Psyche as a play or puppet show.

Links

For more about the artist, read the entry on Joel T. Hart in the Kentucky Encyclopedia (subscription required for online version).
[www.kyenc.org/entry/h/HARTJ01.html]

Read about Woman Triumphant in The Ideal Woman in Victorian Kentucky on the University of Kentucky web site.
[www.uky.edu/LCC/HIS/scraps/hart.html]

A painting of Hart himself and an image of his bust of Henry Clay are available in the Kentucky Legislative Research Commission’s Guide to Works of Art in the Old State Capitol.
[lrc.ky.gov/kidspages/artwork.htm]