Hiram Powers (1805-1873)

Professions: Sculptor

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  HIRAM POWERS AMERICAN, 1805-1873

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  Hiram Powers 1805-1873 , Bust of George Washington white marble

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  Hiram Powers (1805-1873)

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  HIRAM POWERS 1805-1873 FISHER BOY Measurements: height: 19.5in. Alternate Measurements: (49.5 cm) inscribed H. Powers Sculp. white marble Provenance: Acquired by the present family, before 1955 Literature and References: cf. Richard P. Wunder, Hiram

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Hiram Powers Biography

(b Woodstock, VT, 29 July 1805; d Florence, 27 June 1873). American sculptor. He grew up in Cincinnati, OH, and his career as a sculptor began when he created animated wax figures for a tableau of Dante’s Inferno at Dorfeuille’s Western Museum in Cincinnati, where he was supervisor of the mechanical department. He learnt to model clay and make plaster casts from Frederick Eckstein (c. 1775–1852). The portrait busts he created of his friends attracted the attention of the wealthy Nicholas Longworth, who financed trips for Powers to New York in 1829 and to Washington, DC, in 1834, when he sculpted President Andrew Jackson (marble, c. 1835; New York, Met.). Powers’s strikingly lifelike bust, classicized only by the drapery, brought him commissions from other Washington luminaries, including John Marshall (marble, 1835; Washington, DC, US Capitol), Martin van Buren (marble, 1837; New York, NY Hist. Soc.) and John Quincy Adams (marble, 1837; Kinderhook, NY, Columbia Co. Hist. Soc. Mus.).

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