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The article analyzes the allegory of feminine figures in the sculptures by classicist sculptor Daniel Chester French. It discusses the baroque manner by which French created female forms such as "Painting and Sculpture," "Architecture," "Alma Mater," "Brooklyn," Manahattan" and "The Continents," and his attempts to achieve the perfect form of the modern woman with intellectual and physical freedom in "Mourning Glory," "Spirit of the Waters," "The Spirit of Life," "Memory," and "Andromeda."

The article reports on the role of art exhibitions established by the National Academy of Design in New York in the American art criticism. Art exhibitions held at National Academy of Design focused on contemporary art and their regularity. They did not include the works of European old masters and the sculptures featured in the exhibitions at the American Academy of Fine Arts in New York and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. They have an impact on the development of American art criticism which were evident on the article published for the institution's second exhibition that stated that hierarchy of artistic subject matter had been established in the Renaissance. They also influenced the way artists worked on their subject matter and on public artistic taste.