Skip to main contentBiographyPowers was the first American sculptor to win international fame. Powers began his career in Cincinnati modelling life-size wax figures for tableaux from Dante's Inferno. Something of the disturbing naturalism of the waxwork found its way into his early portrait of President Andrew Jackson (c. 1835; Washington, National Mus. of American Art), and sits incongruously with a conventional composition taken from classical sculpture. In 1837 Powers went to Florence, then dominated by Lorenzo Bartolini. He remained in Italy for the rest of his life, assimilating completely the NEOCLASSICAL style developed by CANOVA and THORVALDSEN. His most famous work, then and now, is The Greek Slave, first created in plaster in 1843 and later made in several marble examples also (one is in New Haven, Yale University AG). This statue of a nude, chained female combines an almost aggressively chilly Neoclassicism with a strong erotic frisson, much like the contemporary painted nudes of INGRES. A version was exhibited at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and another toured the United States attracting paying crowds for several years. The character of the Greek Slave has been connected with both the Greek War of Independence and the sculptor's Swedenborgianism. (SOURCE: Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2122?q=hiram+powers&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit, Accessed October 3rd, 2016).
Powers continued to create portrait busts and ideal works, selling multiple copies of the more popular subjects until the end of his life. The Civil War seriously curtailed the demand for white marble statuary in America, and when buying resumed, patrons preferred naturalistic bronze pieces and Powers’s reputation languished. His final full-length work, Last of the Tribe (modelled 1867–72, carved 1873–4; Washington, DC, Smithsonian Amer. A. Mus.), depicts a semi-nude American Indian girl running and looking backwards over her left shoulder. The modelling of his last piece took place at the same time Powers sculpted the bust of Hamilton graduate Edwin C. Litchfield '1832.
Powers built an improved pointing machine with a movable joint for ease of operation, developed a method of modelling in plaster as an alternative to clay, and redesigned common files and rasps to adeptly smooth the surface of his plaster models. He also perfected the process of finishing marble to realize a close approximation to the porosity of human flesh, an effect that was achieved best when employed on his stone of choice—the fine-grained Serravezza marble from a quarry near Carrara, Italy. This life-like quality became a hallmark of his work and won him wide public and critical acclaim.
Powers departed for Italy with his family in 1837, leaving the USA permanently. In Florence he continued to produce portrait busts such as that of Horatio Greenough (marble, modelled 1838, carved 1854–9; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.), a compatriot sculptor also living in Florence. Powers also began making idealized works imbued with noble sentiment, with subjects taken from religion, history, or literature. He achieved remarkable success with such work: his bust Proserpine (marble, modelled 1843, carved 1844; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.) was reproduced over 100 times. With only the most rudimentary training in anatomy, Powers began his first life-size figure in 1838, Eve Tempted or Eve before the Fall (marble, modelled 1839–42, carved 1873–7; Washington, DC, Smithsonian Amer. A. Mus.). This was followed by other full-length works such as Fisherboy (marble, modelled 1841–4, carved 1857; New York, Met.), which depicts a nude boy, leaning in Praxitelean contrapposto on a net and tiller as he holds a conch shell to his ear. Powers’s strikingly lifelike bust, classicized only by the drapery, had great appeal and resulted in other Washington luminaries agreeing to sit for him, including John Marshall (marble, modelled 1835, carved 1838–9; Washington, DC, US Capitol), Martin van Buren (marble, modelled 1836, carved 1862; New York, NY Hist. Soc.), and John Quincy Adams (marble, modelled 1837, carved 1839; Quincy, MA, United First Parish Church). Powers became the most famous American sculptor and was likened by his contemporaries to both Pheidias and Michelangelo.(SOURCE: Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T069122?q=hiram+powers&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit, Accessed October 3rd, 2016).
Hiram Powers
American, 1805 - 1873
Powers continued to create portrait busts and ideal works, selling multiple copies of the more popular subjects until the end of his life. The Civil War seriously curtailed the demand for white marble statuary in America, and when buying resumed, patrons preferred naturalistic bronze pieces and Powers’s reputation languished. His final full-length work, Last of the Tribe (modelled 1867–72, carved 1873–4; Washington, DC, Smithsonian Amer. A. Mus.), depicts a semi-nude American Indian girl running and looking backwards over her left shoulder. The modelling of his last piece took place at the same time Powers sculpted the bust of Hamilton graduate Edwin C. Litchfield '1832.
Powers built an improved pointing machine with a movable joint for ease of operation, developed a method of modelling in plaster as an alternative to clay, and redesigned common files and rasps to adeptly smooth the surface of his plaster models. He also perfected the process of finishing marble to realize a close approximation to the porosity of human flesh, an effect that was achieved best when employed on his stone of choice—the fine-grained Serravezza marble from a quarry near Carrara, Italy. This life-like quality became a hallmark of his work and won him wide public and critical acclaim.
Powers departed for Italy with his family in 1837, leaving the USA permanently. In Florence he continued to produce portrait busts such as that of Horatio Greenough (marble, modelled 1838, carved 1854–9; Boston, MA, Mus. F.A.), a compatriot sculptor also living in Florence. Powers also began making idealized works imbued with noble sentiment, with subjects taken from religion, history, or literature. He achieved remarkable success with such work: his bust Proserpine (marble, modelled 1843, carved 1844; Philadelphia, PA, Mus. A.) was reproduced over 100 times. With only the most rudimentary training in anatomy, Powers began his first life-size figure in 1838, Eve Tempted or Eve before the Fall (marble, modelled 1839–42, carved 1873–7; Washington, DC, Smithsonian Amer. A. Mus.). This was followed by other full-length works such as Fisherboy (marble, modelled 1841–4, carved 1857; New York, Met.), which depicts a nude boy, leaning in Praxitelean contrapposto on a net and tiller as he holds a conch shell to his ear. Powers’s strikingly lifelike bust, classicized only by the drapery, had great appeal and resulted in other Washington luminaries agreeing to sit for him, including John Marshall (marble, modelled 1835, carved 1838–9; Washington, DC, US Capitol), Martin van Buren (marble, modelled 1836, carved 1862; New York, NY Hist. Soc.), and John Quincy Adams (marble, modelled 1837, carved 1839; Quincy, MA, United First Parish Church). Powers became the most famous American sculptor and was likened by his contemporaries to both Pheidias and Michelangelo.(SOURCE: Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T069122?q=hiram+powers&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit, Accessed October 3rd, 2016).
Person TypeIndividual
American, 1859 – 1937 (active France)