A Rare Marble Sculpture by America’s First Professional Female Sculptor Sat Hidden in Plain Sight for Decades in an English Garden

A rare marble bust by one of America’s most famous female sculptors has been found in the yard of a home in England, where for more than 70 years it stood inconspicuously, assumed to be a run-of-the-mill garden decoration. Covered in lichen, the 19th-century bust, which depicts Daphne, a nymph from Greek mythology, was identified during a routine property valuation. It is believed to be the debut work of Harriet Goodhue Hosmer, who is known today for being America’s first professional female sculptor, a pioneer for gender equality and a queer icon.

Now cleaned to reveal its sparkling marble surface, the sculpture has been valued at as much as $24,300—a happy surprise to the family that owns it. Thomas Jenner-Fust, the director of Chorley’s Auctioneers, discovered the sculpture during a house valuation. The owners “had no idea it was marble, no idea who it was by and no idea it was so valuable,” he tells BBC News’ Bea Swallow.

You never really know what you’re going to find next, and that’s the thrill of the chase.” Hosmer’s name is inscribed on the back of the artwork, along with the phrase “Me Fecit Roma,” Latin for “Rome Made Me.” Born in 1830 in Massachusetts, Hosmer spent a significant portion of her early career in the Italian city, living and working within a small circle of other female expatriate sculptors who were sometimes referred to, in a nod to their marble medium and with faint sexism, as the “white marmorean flock.” In an era when women were openly derided for pursuing careers outside of traditional gender roles, Hosmer earned acclaim for her fortitude and outstanding skill. Though it was forbidden to most women, she studied human anatomy and was accepted into the studio of sculptor John Gibson. Heroines who defied patriarchal expectations became a central theme of her works.

Hosmer’s 1854 sculpture of Daphne—who turned into a tree to escape the pursuing sun god Apollo—bears similarities to her first commissioned work, Oenone, which sold two years later, in 1856: Both feature tragic nymphs with heads downcast. At age 29, Hosmer sculpted Zenobia in Chains (1859), which is now considered her masterpiece. Standing seven feet tall, the artwork depicts the third-century queen of Palmyra (modern-day Syria) being paraded in chains through the streets after her capture by the Roman emperor Aurelian.

Some legends say she died by suicide to avoid capture; others speculate that Aurelian freed her upon seeing her beauty in person. Ironically, when Hosmer’s sculpture of the queen was shown at London’s Crystal Palace in 1862, it received so much acclaim that male critics and newspapers refused to believe or acknowledge that it had been created by a woman. Her friend and studio partner Frederic Leighton once referred to her as “the queerest, best natured little chap possible,” according to the Liverpool Museums.

After meeting Hosmer in Rome, the American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, “She was very peculiar, but she seemed to be her actual self, and nothing affected or made up; so that, for my part, I gave her full leave to wear what may suit her best, and to behave as her inner woman prompts.” Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.