Joseph Mozier (1812-1870)

'The Wept of the Wish-Ton-Wish', A Marble Figure

Details

Joseph Mozier (1812-1870)
'The Wept of the Wish-Ton-Wish', A Marble Figure
signed 'J. MOZIER. Sc: ROME, 1865.' and 'THE WEPT OF THE WISH-TON-WISH'
52in. (132cm.) high, with two-part marble base

Literature

L. Taft, The History of American Sculpture, New York, 1924, p. 109-110
W.H. Gerdts, American Neo-Classic Sculpture: The Marble Resurrection, New York, 1973, pp. 120-121, fig. 134
J.S. Kasson, Marble Queens and Captives: Women in Nineteenth Century American Sculpture, New Haven, 1990, pp. 93-97

Lot Essay

The subject of this marble, a Puritan girl who has completely adopted the ways of her Indian captors, is derived from James Fenimore Cooper's 1829 novel Wept of Wish-ton-Wish. After years of captivity, marriage with the chief, and motherhood, the woman is re-united with her family and reverted to Christianity, only to die of a broken heart. Mozier depicts the confusing and ambivalent nature of the heroine's situation at the moment she is recognizing her own mother's voice.