Background
Hiram, the son of a farmer, was born on June 29, 1805 in Vermont, United States.
(The catalogue of an exhibition at Hollis Taggart Gallerie...)
The catalogue of an exhibition at Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, October 5 - 21, 2000. With 22 illustrations, 5 in color.
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(Excerpt from Letters of Hiram Powers to Nicholas Longwort...)
Excerpt from Letters of Hiram Powers to Nicholas Longworth, Esq., 1856-1858 N ow, I never intended this present statue for the Government, but meant, if I should ever receive an order, to repeat it on a colossal scale, and such I got Mr. Everett to offer to the President, or the present one, just as might suit the views of the President. I thought the wording of the amendment would justify the Pres ident in receiving the present statue, nevertheless, I offered a larger one. Mr. Pugh says nothing of this in his letter, and it would appear that the President did not name it to him. A photograph of the statue was sent to the President nearly or quite a year ago, and yet, according to Mr. Pugh's letter, the President wanted to see one! Here are two important omissions of facts, as samples of the fairness of the President's statements as given by Mr. Pugh, and deeming them sufficient to show the character of the whole, I shall not fill up the sheet with further corrections. I have however, taken the liberty of sending a copy of Mr. Pugh's letter to Mr. Everett with comments upon every part of it - all going to show how unfairly to say the least of it - I have been treated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Hiram, the son of a farmer, was born on June 29, 1805 in Vermont, United States.
In 1819 his father removed to Ohio, about six miles from Cincinnati, where Hiram attended school for about a year, staying meanwhile with his brother, a lawyer in Cincinnati.
In 1826 he began to frequent the studio of Mr 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 Frenchman named Dorfeuille, where his ingenious representation of the infernal regions to illustrate the more striking scenes in the poem of Dante met with extraordinary success.
When Powers settled in Florence, Italy, in 1837, he made marble reproductions of these busts.
He spent the rest of his life in Florence.
He also received encouragement from Bertel Thorvaldsen, then the most famous European neoclassic sculptor. Powers continued to sculpture portraits throughout his lifetime.
His patrons were visiting Americans and Europeans, some of noble heritage or of great repute.
It was in the area of ideal works, however, that he made his reputation.
He began creating such works as his bust Ginevra soon after arriving in Florence and followed this with his first full-length sculpture, Eve Tempted.
His second full-length nude female figure, the Greek Slave, won him international acclaim; six full-size replicas were made.
The statue became the best-known American sculpture of the 19th century because of its exhibition at the Crystal Palace in England in 1851 and the tour of several versions of the sculpture in the United States.
The piece was emulated by other sculptors, both American and European. Power's Greek Slave was followed by other full-length works, such as California, America, Eve Disconsolate, and The Last of the Tribe, as well as busts of these, and Faith, Hope, Charity, Psyche, Diana, and Proserpine.
Over 130 replicas of Proserpine are known to have been made.
The great disappointment of his life was the lack of serious governmental patronage; this was accorded, instead, to his contemporary Thomas Crawford.
The entire contents of his studio, including all his plaster models, about 20 marble sculptures, and his tools, casts, and manuscripts, were later acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C.
(The catalogue of an exhibition at Hollis Taggart Gallerie...)
(Excerpt from Letters of Hiram Powers to Nicholas Longwort...)