My Dear Girl: The Art of Florence Hosmer

Literary Nonfiction. Biography. Florence Armes Hosmer was born in 1880. A farmer’s daughter, she was determined to succeed as an artist. Acclaimed in the early part of the 20th century, she has fallen almost entirely from view. This lyrical work is the story of how Miss Hosmer, a feisty New England woman, painted her way through the new century a century that saw two world wars, women’s suffrage, the Great Depression, a Civil Rights Movement, and significant changes in the world of art. She created well more than 500 works, many of them quite remarkable portraits. The book is the result of five years of research into hitherto unexamined letters and notebooks and is both a good read and a significant contribution to the study of life in rural America and the study of women in the arts.