Hiram PowersAmerican, 1805–1873The Greek Slave
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
Smithsonian American Art Museum
RoomLuce Foundation Center, 3rd Floor, 19AWashington, D.C., United States
On public display.
- Checked
- 7 days ago
- In this state since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the sculpture
Hiram Powers (1805-73) was among the first American sculptors to establish an international reputation, rising to fame in the late 1840s with his Greek Slave, a life-size marble sculpture of a chained, nude woman. Few could have predicted Powers' incredible success from his humble beginnings on a farm in Ohio or his time in Washington, DC, where he made somber plaster portraits of four early presidents and other luminaries. Powers moved to Florence, Italy, with his wife and young children in 1837, lured there by its abundance of fine marble and highly skilled stone carvers. He quickly realized there was much to gain from making ideal compositions of nude figures drawn from literary, biblical, and historical themes.
Read on
Powers set up a studio dividing labor among several assistants and, using the latest technologies such as the pointing machine, to create numerous replicas of his most popular designs in marble. Although he always intended to return to the United States, Powers remained abroad until his death and became an unofficial ambassador for American culture. He was a central figure in the expatriate colony in Florence, where he masterfully marketed his work to British nobles and American collectors touring Europe.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- 1968.155.101
What it shows
Sources
- Smithsonian American Art Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 7 days ago
- Image: Smithsonian American Art Museum — CC0
