'AMERICA' Marble by Hiram Powers, circa 1854

Modeling an abstract idea as a woman, here an allegory of America, artist Hiram Powers sought to give visual form to democratic ideals, which he... more

by Douglas Taylor

Original - Not For Sale

Price

$195

Dimensions

30.000 x 45.000 inches

Title

'AMERICA' Marble by Hiram Powers, circa 1854

Artist

Douglas Taylor

Medium

Photograph - Fine Art Digital Photography

Description

Modeling an abstract idea as a woman, here an allegory of America, artist Hiram Powers sought to give visual form to democratic ideals, which he believed would resonate strongly with audiences in both the United States and Europe in the mid-19th century. Draped cloth partially covers the figure’s chest and she wears a headband, or diadem, whose 13 stars signify the nation’s first states. This classicizing bust is drawn from Powers’s full-scale sculpture, similarly called America.

Hiram Powers' career began with his employment at a museum of mechanical wax figures in Cincinnati, Ohio. With the support of patron Nicholas Longworth, Powers' career flourished. Longworth sponsored Powers' trip to Washington, DC, where the young artist made his reputation with a marble bust of Andrew Jackson (1835, The Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Powers was equally skilled at carving statues in the popular neoclassical style, based on ideals of beauty of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. Powers was one of the most successful and highly regarded American sculptors of the nineteenth century. From the 1830s on, several American sculptors achieved international fame; Powers stood out among them with his talent for creating both portraits in marble and images of classical purity.

His portrait busts were greatly admired and sought after; between 1842 and 1855 Powers completed 150 of them. He produced both realistic and idealized classical works until his death in Florence in 1873. He was also an early and staunch Abolitionist, notable at time when it was not a fashionable or favored political position.

"America" was photographed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The wonderfully smooth Carrara marble was marred in an accident, and the flaw to the forehead has been retouched in this photograph to restore it to its original beauty. The National Gallery of Art is superbly lit, allowing me to make this photographic interpretation of the serene sculpture. This print will nicely compliment my photograph of Powers's "Diana" as a matched pair of classical portraits.

Uploaded

June 5th, 2022