Hiram Powers

Born: Woodstock, VT, 29 July 1805

Died: Florence, Italy, 27 June 1873

Nationality: American


Works by this Artist

Greek Slave
Hiram Powers, 1843 (Yale version, 1850)

Studies

with Frederick Eckstein

Career

Employed at Dorfeuille’s Western Museum (Cincinnati) creating animated wax figures

1829 – patron Nicholas Longworth funds move to New York

1834 – moves to Washington, DC; creates portrait busts of Andrew Jackson (1835, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY), John Marshall (1835, US Capitol, Washington, DC), and Martin van Buren (1837, New York Historical Society)

1837 –moves to Florence

1841 – begins work on the Greek Slave

1845 – Greek Slave is exhibited in London

1847 – Greek Slave tours American cities

1851 – Greek Slave shown at Great (Crystal Palace) Exhibition (London)

1855 – Greek Slave exhibited at Exposition universelle (Paris)

1859 –receives commissions for marble statues of Benjamin Franklin (1862) and Thomas Jefferson (1863) for the US Capitol

Travel

New York (1829); Washington, DC (1834); Italy (1837-1873)

Commissions from

US Government

Important Artworks

Greek Slave, 1843 (original, Raby Castle, Durham; there are 6 copies) (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

Readings

Colbert, Charles. “Spiritual Currents and Manifest Destiny in the Art of Hiram Powers,” The Art Bulletin, vol. 82, no. 3 (September 2000): 529-43

Green, Vivian M. “Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave : Emblem of Freedom,” American Art Journal, vol. 14, no. 4 (Autumn 1982): 31-9

Hyman, Linda. “The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers: High Art as Popular Culture,” Art Journal, vol. 35, no. 3 (Spring 1976): 216-23

Nemerov A. "When Did Art Become Meaningless? Hiram Powers's Greek Slave," Yale Review, vol. 99, no. 2 (2011): 94-103

Powers, Hiram. Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble. Exhibition catalogue. Cincinnati, OH: Taft Museum of Art, 2007

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