A. Piatt Andrew (La Porte, Indiana, 1873 - 1936, Gloucester, Massachusetts)
Postcard of Anna Hyatt's Joan of Arc Sculpture, 10 February 1921
Ink on gelatin silver print
This postcard is a gelatin silver print of a sculpture of the triumphant Joan of Arc on horseback. Joan is seen in profile standing upright in the stirrups with her sword held in her outstretched right hand. She appears to be dressed in full armor with the visor pushed atop her head. She is looking upward at her sword. Her horse is in midstride with its right front leg bent upward. The horse’s head is pulled toward the rider with its mouth open. Its ears tilted backward, and a wild look its wide-opened eyes. The reverse side of the postcard is addressed in handwritten script to: “Mrs. John L. Gardner, Fenway Court, Boston, Mass”. It carries a 1 cent US postage stamp with the image of George Washington and is cancelled with: ‘Gloucester, Mass, Feb 10, 1921, 8 PM.’. Handwritten vertically across the postcard is the following: “A preview of what you will see here next summer. A. ”
Macknight Room
Commentary
Anna Hyatt Huntington's equestrian monument of Joan of Arc was a huge success. She won an honorable mention for her life-sized plaster model of the French heroine in full armor on horseback in the 1910 Paris Salon, a major exhibition of contemporary art, and she soon received a public commission for a bronze version from New York City—the city’s first public art commission by a woman sculptor. Her success led to several more commissions for the composition including one for a World War I Memorial in Gloucester, Massachusetts, organized by Isabella Stewart Gardner's good friend and future congressman A. Piatt Andrew.
Andrew sent Isabella this postcard of Huntington's Joan of Arc sculpture with a note saying, “A preview of what you will see here next summer.” Isabella did see the monument in July of 1922 and preserved several mementos related to it in the museum's galleries.