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
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.