Skip to main content
Artist/Maker
Hiram Powers
(American, 1805 - 1873)
Date1867-70
MediumMarble
DimensionsComposition: 30 × 21 × 12 in. (76.2 × 53.3 × 30.5 cm)
Credit LineHamilton College Portrait Collection. Gift of Edwin C. Litchfield, Class of 1832
Object number1869.2
On view
DescriptionThis sculpture depicts Edwin C. Litchfield, a Hamilton alumnus and the founder of the Litchfield Observatory. At the request of the Hamilton College Trustees, Litchfield commissioned Hiram Powers to produce the work and gifted it to the college. Though American, Powers worked in Florence, Italy and was famous for his Neoclassical sculptures, which were popular among the rising American collector class. It is in this style that Litchfield is presented, such that the subject’s wavy hair, beard, and garment resembles ancient Roman imperial portraiture. The American Neoclassical movement persisted throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and was characterized by a return to the artistic styles and motifs of ancient Greece and Rome. This portrait bust was commissioned in anticipation of the construction of the Smith Library Hall, which opened in 1873 and housed Hamilton’s Memorial Hall and Art Gallery (SOURCE: Wellin Museum permanent collection label, Summer 2016).
Collections
Additional Details
Exhibition History
2005
Clinton, NY. Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. Hamilton Collects, "A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat., illus., 14).
1874 - 1914
Clinton, NY. Memorial Hall and Art Gallery, Hamilton College. Permanent installation, 1874-1914.
Clinton, NY. Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College. Hamilton Collects, "A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat., illus., 14).
1874 - 1914
Clinton, NY. Memorial Hall and Art Gallery, Hamilton College. Permanent installation, 1874-1914.
Provenance
1872: Hamilton College (Memorial Art Gallery), by gift of Edwin Litchfield;
1869-1872: held in trust by O.S. Williams for Hamilton College;
1867: commissioned by Edwin Litchfield for Hamilton College.
1869-1872: held in trust by O.S. Williams for Hamilton College;
1867: commissioned by Edwin Litchfield for Hamilton College.
Published References
A CENTURY OF CURIOSITIES, THE STORY OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION (exh. cat., Clinton, NY, Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, September 29-December 30, 2005, Unnumbered cat.).
René Treviño
Date: 2023
Medium: Archival digital prints with mixed media on bamboo paper
Object number: 2024.14.1-20
Fitzgerald C. Peploe
Date: 1903
Medium: Bronze
Object number: 19XX.8
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: c. 1300-1100 BCE
Medium: Terracotta with slip
Object number: 2015.6.6
Date: 6th-8th century
Medium: Terracotta
Object number: 2015.6.49
Unknown artist, Greek (Ancient)
Date: c. 750-600 BCE
Medium: Terracotta with slip
Object number: 2015.6.2
Unknown artist, Roman (Ancient)
Date: 3rd century
Medium: Blown glass
Object number: 2015.6.27
Lt. John Herbert Caddy
Date: 1845
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Object number: 1971.3
John William Lewin
Date: 1770-1819
Medium: Graphite, ink, and watercolor on paper
Object number: 1971.13