Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hiram Powers often thought about giving up portrait busts to concentrate solely on his ideal sculptures. Some opportunities were too tempting to resist, however, as with the portrait of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Powers modeled the sculpture out of respect for the poet and as a valuable addition to his busts of notable people; the sitter’s brother and sister as well as many admirers of his poetry commissioned several replicas. This portrait is an example of Powers’s later work during the 1860s, when he modeled his busts after the classical Greek herm design, with a squared-off, tapering base.

About the sculpture

Particulars

In the same room · Luce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 17B, Smithsonian American Art Museum

On the same theme · Sculpture model

Yes, receiving visitors

What it shows

In the catalog

Sources

Andrew Jackson

George Washington

The Greek Slave

Fisher Boy

Proserpine

Bust of "The Greek Slave"

America

California

Alma Hammond L'Hommedieu, 1872 or 1873

Judge Alphonso Taft, 1869

Henry Barrett Crosby, 1869 or 1870

Caleb Fiske Harris, 1867

Portrait of a Lady, ca. 1867

Louisa Greenough Powers Ibbotson, 1862

Solomon Sturgis, modeled 1862

Louisa Greenough Powers Ibbotson, modeled 1862

William West Durant, modeled 1863

Philosophy (bust of figure on front facade of New York Public Library), modeled ca. 1915

Eve Disconsolate, modeled 1855-1861

Chivalry, Half-scale Head for General George G. Meade Memorial, 1917-1920

Preliminary Model of Male Figure from Fountain of Engineers, ca. 1905-1914

Hope, modeled 1869

Model for Seated Statue of James Smithson, 1904

Head of Marquis de Lafayette (Lafayette Monument, Paris, France), modeled 1899-1907