Joel Tanner Hart (February 10, 1810 – March 2, 1877) was an American

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

Life and work

Joel Tanner Hart Joel T Hart
. Kentucky Historical Society. University of Kentucky. (Accessed 12 Sep 2017) was born February 10, 1810, near Winchester, in Clark County, Kentucky to Josiah Hart and Judith Tanner Hart and was a sculptor of importance during America's

antebellum Antebellum, Latin for "before war", may refer to: United States history * Antebellum South, the pre-American Civil War period in the Southern United States ** Antebellum Georgia ** Antebellum South Carolina ** Antebellum Virginia * Antebellum ar ...

years. As a young man, he worked as a stone-cutter, developing his skills as a sculptor. In the 1840s he joined a growing artistic and literary community in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

where he lived for the remainder of his life. Joel Tanner Hart is best known for busts of

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

(1838) and

Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...

(1847). As well, he carved those of

John Jordan Crittenden John Jordan Crittenden (September 10, 1787 July 26, 1863) was an American statesman and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and twice served as United ...

and Cassius M. Clay and created the statues called ''Il Penseroso'' (1853) and ''Woman Triumphant'' that stood at the Fayette County courthouse until it was destroyed by fire in 1897. He also sculpted the

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

for the tombstone of

Southwood Smith Thomas Southwood Smith (17881861) was an English physician and sanitary reformer. Early life Smith was born at Martock, Somerset, into a strict Baptist family, his parents being William Smith and Caroline Southwood. In 1802 he won a scholarshi ...

in the English Cemetery in Florence. Hart died in Florence in 1877 and was buried in the same English Cemetery. By Legislative Act, his remains were later exhumed and returned to his native state of Kentucky for reinterment in the

Frankfort Cemetery The Frankfort Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located on East Main Street in Frankfort, Kentucky. The cemetery is the burial site of Daniel Boone and contains the graves of other famous Americans including seventeen Kentucky governors and a ...

Frankfort, Kentucky Frankfort is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, and the seat of Franklin County. It is a home rule-class city; the population was 28,602 at the 2020 census. Located along the Kentucky River, Frankfort is the prin ...

on June 18, 1887.Biographical Sketch of Josiah Hart
. By S.D. Mitchell. Volume 42, Number 138, January 1944. Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society © 1944 Kentucky Historical Society
Page 19
&
Page 20
(Accessed 12 Sep 2017)

Archival collections

#Title:
Joel T. Hart Letters, 1829-1864
Collection Number: 02797-z. ''The Wilson Special Collections Library''. Polk Place. University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill Campus. #Title:
Joel T. Hart Papers, 1836, 1876
''Kentucky Historical Society''. University of Kentucky. #Title
Joel Tanner Hart Poems
Catalog Number SC 1488. ''Kentucky Historical Society''.

References

External links

*
Guide to the Reuben T. Durrett Collection of Joel Tanner Hart Papers 1823-1876
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hart, Joel Tanner 1810 births 1877 deaths 19th-century American sculptors 19th-century American male artists American male sculptors Sculptors from Kentucky Burials at Frankfort Cemetery People from Clark County, Kentucky American expatriates in Italy