- Hiram Powers
Hiram Powers (
June 29 ,1805 -June 27 ,1873 ) was a U.S. neoclassical sculptor.Biography
The son of a farmer, Powers was born in
Woodstock, Vermont , on theJuly 29 ,1805 . In 1818 his father removed toOhio , about six miles fromCincinnati , where the son attended school for about a year, staying meanwhile with his brother, a lawyer in Cincinnati. After leaving school he found employment superintending a reading-room in connection with the chief hotel of the town, but being, in his own words, forced at last to leave that place as his clothes and shoes were fast leaving him, he became a clerk in a general store. At age 17, Powers became an assistant toLuman Watson , Cincinnati's early woodenclockmaker . Powers was skilled in modelling figures. Watson owned aclock and organ factory, Powers set himself to master the construction of the instruments, displaying an aptitude which in a short time enabled him to become the first mechanic in the factory.In 1826 he began to frequent the studio of Frederick Eckstein, and at once conceived a strong passion for the art of
sculpture . His proficiency in modelling secured him the situation of general assistant and artist of the Western Museum, kept by a Louisiana naturalist of French extraction named Joseph Dorfeuille, where his ingenious representation of the infernal regions to illustrate the more striking scenes in the poem of Dante met with extraordinary success. The idea for this entertainment was concieved byFanny Trollope . After studying thoroughly the art of modelling and casting, at the end of 1834 he went toWashington DC , where his remarkable gifts soon awakened general attention. In 1837 he settled inFlorence , where he remained till his death, though he did travel to England during this time. He developed a thriving business in portraiture and "fancy" parlor busts, but he also devoted his time to creating life-size, full-figure ideal subjects, many of which were also isolated as a bust. In 1839 his statue of Eve excited the warm admiration ofBertel Thorvaldsen , and in 1843 he produced his celebrated statue "The Greek Slave ", which at once gave him a place among the leading sculptors of his time. It was exhibited at the centre of the Crystal Palace Exhibition andElizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a sonnet on it. The sculpture "The Greek Slave" became an abolitionist cause and copies of it appeared in many Union-supporting state houses. Among the best known of his other ideal statues are "The Fisher Boy", "Il Penseroso", "Eve Disconsolate", "California", "America" (modelled forthe Crystal Palace ,Sydenham ), and "The Last of the Tribe" (also called "The Last of Her Tribe"). Powers died on theJune 27 ,1873 , and is buried as were three of his children, in the'English' Cemetery, Florence .Direct descendants of Hiram Powers in Europe included the noted Futurist designer, Ernesto Michahelles (a.k.a. Thayaht), painter Ruggero Michahelles, and architectMichele Michahelles .In 2007 the
Taft Museum of Art ,Cincinnati, Ohio presented the first major exhibition devoted to the most celebrated nineteenth century American sculptor, "Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble". This is the same place of the first solo exhibition of Powers' work in Cincinnati in 1842, when Nicholas Longworth opened his private residence to allow the public to view Power's newest sculpture. [http://www.taftmuseum.org/exhibitions/hirampowers/hirampowers.htm]Collections holding works by Hiram Powers include the Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover, Massachusetts), the
Amon Carter Museum (Texas), the Arizona State University Art Museum, the Art Gallery of the University of Rochester (New York), theBirmingham Museum of Art (Alabama), theBrooklyn Museum of Art (New York City), theCarnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), theCincinnati Art Museum , theCorcoran Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College (Florida),Detroit Institute of Arts ,Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco , theGlencairn Museum (Pennsylvania),Harvard University Art Museums , theHonolulu Academy of Arts , theHudson River Museum (Yonkers, New York), theMetropolitan Museum of Art , theMilwaukee Art Museum ,Miami University , the Morse Museum of American Art, (Florida), theMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston , theNational Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), theNewark Museum (New Jersey), theNorth Carolina Museum of Art , thePortland Museum of Art (Maine), theSmithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), the United States Senate Art Collection, the University of Cincinnati Galleries (Ohio), theUniversity of Michigan Museum of Art , the Vermont State House Fine Arts Collection (Montpelier, Vermont), the White House Collection, (Washington) and theYale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Connecticut).Further reading
*cite book | author=Lynne D. Ambrosini and Rebecca A. G. Reynolds | title=Hiram Powers: Genius in Marble | location=Cincinnati | publisher=Taft Museum of Art | year=2007
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External links
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/powers_hiram.html Artcyclopedia: list of sites featuring Powers' work]
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