The topic of this paper is the first major exodus of American women artists from their fatherland, which took place in the mid-nineteenth century. These women, who were active in Rome for varying periods of time from 1848 until 1887, were ostensibly in search of educational and economic benefits for their careers as artists across boundaries of language, culture, and gender. After giving a list with the names of some of these women artists as well as some examples of the works produced during and after their foreign sojourns, the author illustrates four reasons why it would be too simplistic to say that they expatriated to escape attitudes towards women in their own countries. These American women artists in Rome were tourists and as such effectively positioned as masculine subjects. The result of which is an arguable “double dose” of identification of these women sculptors who functioned as masculine hero-tourists, journeying to prove themselves in a male dominated profession.
